wireless broadband

The national broadband plan that the Federal Communications Commission submits to Congress later this month is now expected to cost up to $25 billion. But since the nation's lawmakers are looking for ways to reduce the national debt, the FCC is seeking ways to offset the cost through spectrum auctions and other measures.

Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to all Americans.

The Obama administration and Congress have identified universal broadband as a key to driving economic development, producing jobs and bringing educational opportunities and cutting-edge medicine to all corners of the country.

Last year, millions of consumers flocked to netbooks, the stripped-down machines viewed as low-priced alternatives to laptop computers. If you were one of the netbook converts, a few minutes with the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 laptop might make you backslide.

Like many of Lenovo's business-focused ThinkPad laptops, the T410 is nothing special to look at. Don't be fooled by the matte-black industrial shell that evokes the ThinkPad's IBM lineage.

The Federal Communications Commission revealed broad outlines Wednesday for the national broadband plan it is scheduled to submit to Congress early next year. One of the major challenges is to more effectively use the nation's existing telecommunication assets -- including the available wireless spectrum, which is facing impending shortages -- according to a report from the FCC's broadband task force.

Comcast launched a high-speed wireless data service in Portland on Tuesday as the first step in what the cable-TV network operator expects to eventually become a nationwide rollout -- with Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia expected to go online later this year.

Called Comcast High-Speed 2go, the new 4G service will operate over Clearwire's WiMAX infrastructure in the Portland metropolitan area and elsewhere over Sprint Nextel's nationwide 3G network. Comcast is a major investor in Clearwire, together with Bright House Networks, Google, Intel, Sprint and Time Warner Cable.

Amazon's Kindle 2, an electronic book reader available from the online retailer since late February, retails for almost double what it costs to build the device, according to iSuppli. Its teardown analysis service said the Kindle 2 retails for $359 but only costs $185.49 to build.

As of April 16, nearly 300,000 Kindle 2 devices had shipped, suggesting the company has taken in more than $100 million from sales this year.

AT&T Inc. is going to go beyond cell phones and test selling laptops in its stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia.

The move, announced Wednesday at a trade show in Las Vegas, comes as the cell phone market is starting to saturate, and wireless carriers are looking for ways to expand into other gadgets.

As wireless carriers begin to subsidize computers that come with wireless Internet access, they're faced with a quandary: What do they do if the buyer stops paying his bills?

The company can cut off the computer's wireless access, but the carrier would still be out a couple of hundred dollars. The buyer would be left with a computer that's fully usable except for cellular broadband.

It's official (almost): President Obama plans to name his top tech guru, Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Obama on Tuesday announced his intention to nominate Genachowski. Providing there are no last-minute hitches, a formal announcement and Senate confirmation hearing will follow. That process could take a few months.

Genachowski, 46, is the architect of Obama's hugely successful drive to use the Internet to raise funds for the primary and general election campaigns. He also pushed the idea of using wireless as a way to connect with supporters.

Among the economic stimulus proposals moving through Congress is one that fulfills an old dream of broadband boosters. It would offer substantial funding for high-speed Internet networks in corners of the country that still rely on dial-up connections or have only one broadband option.

The hope is that construction of these networks will create jobs, and that better access to broadband will spur all sorts of new economic activity. Yet not everyone agrees that broadband funding belongs in a stimulus plan.