The FCC’s excuse for delaying the AT&T/Qualcomm spectrum deal was to work on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. The latter has been withdrawn, so what’s the excuse now? AT&T and Sprint both get bad reviews. Sprint’s Nextel deal went through. AT&T’s T-Mobile deal is getting blocked. Hmm. Looks shady, which is why I support Chuck Grassley’s push for FCC transparency involving LightSquared, even though so far their claims on spectrum make sense to me and John Deere and the GPS industry are getting rural pushback against their LightSquared opposition. Yeah, I never thought I’d mention John Deere in Tech at Night, either. Fortunately Republicans are carefully monitoring the FCC processes involved and are questioning the appropriateness of FCC’s reasons to attack AT&T. If FCC stands in the way of spectrum acquisition, then we have a problem. Our spectrum needs are increasing, not staying the same. Want a laugh? Lawsuits were filed against USF reform , as the old rural phone subsidy became an Internet access subsidy, and the old subsidy recipients are mad they’re losing out. I’m rooting for injuries here. Twitter to be blamed for terrorism! Give me a freaking break. I’m reminded of when UK Members of Parliament wanted a Blackberry kill switch during the riots over there. Oh and get this: the radicals now claim Net Neutrality is a failure . Pass the popcorn. Apparently now it’s not enough that the Internet is regulated, but now wireless carriers must be mandated to support specific services on their phones, as with Verizon and Google Wallet. Slippery slopes are real, folks. Sprint vs AT&T. GM vs Toyota. Solyndra and solar vs oil. Again and again, the Obama administration is accused of picking sides in industry. Now House Republicans are threatening to join int he act with SOPA , choosing Hollywood over the Internet with the selective Internet kill switch bill. We’ve got two security bills up in the House. I hope Dan Lungren’s is the model , because I can see nothing wrong and a whole lot right about the government acting as a clearing house of information to secure our Internet resources. It’s a passive role that serves a national defense function without trampling on anyone. Surprise of the day: Democrats push for greater media regulation , having… yup… government choose winners and losers in mass media ownership. Funny how that keeps popping up.
Read the rest here:
Tech at Night: Rural coalition questions John Deere on LightSquared; FCC, Obama, and SOPA picking winners and losers in industry
Welcome to Tech at Night, the series the radical left says is shaping the debate . I sure hope I am. After losing on Net Neutrality and on the America Invents Act, I’d like to get a win. The next chance for a win is in the House, which is debating SOPA , the bill that would create a national censorship blacklist online . Helping to lead the fight against SOPA is actually Google, who joins with other firms to oppose the bill . I know. Whodathunkit? But they’re right on this one, which is why we’re seeing weird things like Darrell Issa stick up for Google as the firm becomes a scapegoat for foreign infringers . Tumblr has joined the fight , encouraging you to contact your member of Congress while the site draws attention to the issue . It sure is nice to see the digital libertarians outraged over this issue . I think it’s funny they weren’t so outraged about Washington ignorance when the Net Neutrality debate came up, but I guess I’ll take what I can get on this issue. Ultimately, the reason we need to defeat SOPA is that we don’t want to feed into the lefty Media Reform crowd’s goal to control the Internet . Remember the Internet Kill Switch idea? SOPA is a *selective* kill switch. No. No. No. I mean, seriously. Someone explain to me why we’re even having SOPA hearings even as Greg Walden, Adam Kinzinger, and a saner committee are fighting regulation by pushing comprehensive FCC reform . Meanwhile, the Authors Guild proves just why we should oppose copyright holders on SOPA by demonstrating their anti-customer, anti-innovation stance against Amazon. Jay Rockefeller proves why we should oppose new regulation by again proving Obama-era regulation is merely a punitive tool against the successful , in this case the FTC against Facebook. Here’s a not-safe-for-work link that’s pretty important for people to see. Behold the Party Van , a hub of Anonymous/Anarchist/Communist Internet hacking and attacking online. Regulation won’t stop people like this. New laws won’t protect people from this kind of cybersecurity threat and online terrorism. Law enforcement will. Quit passing new laws and just put the bad guys in jail the way we used to for crime.
See more here:
Tech at Night: No on SOPA, the selective Internet Kill Switch, Greg Walden and Adam Kinzinger take on the FCC
There’s been a push lately to attack punitive, unfair taxes on wireless service, one that Erick Erickson signed onto, and was advertised at RedState. Ironically I only found out about it because I saw the ads while working on the code side of the site, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Anyway, that movement seems to have gotten a win , as the House passed the Wireless Tax Fairness Act, a 5 year freeze on new wireless taxes. Sounds good to me. SOPA, the House answer to the Senate’s PROTECT IP, isn’t dead yet, unfortunately. This attempt to have the US government censor the Internet, and in fact forcibly steal domains from people, and cut off Americans from the rest of the world online, incredibly is being considered by House Republicans. Copyright apparently is sufficient justification for government of unlimited size . Kill the bill. And what’s worse is that Republicans are being dragged along as dupes to help Democrats continue to justify huge Hollywood fundraisers by smacking the Internet around to favor the movie industry. Which is probably why the MPAA is trying to stifle criticism of the bill . Kill the bill. Kill Net Neutrality too, no matter what John Forbes Kerry thinks . I want a market where people can pay for what level of service they want for wired Internet, not just wireless. Kill the efforts to have government dictate to T-Mobile shareholders which US firms they can and can’t sell to, while we’re at it. AT&T is still trying, banging its head against the wall of the coordinated efforts of Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Sprint Nextel, and George Soros-funded groups like Public Knowledge. Oh yes, and kill 4G overload problems by getting us more spectrum .
Here is the original post:
Tech at Night: Kill the bad bills and regs: SOPA, Net Neutrality, “Anti-trust” favoritism
Not much to say tonight, which is good because I think I’m getting sick again, and if I had a lot to say I’d probably just skip tonight’s Tech. It’s official: the race for FCC handouts is on, as the FCC voted to repurpose the old rural telephone subsidy , the Universal Service Fund (a fund that comes from your special tax dollars) into a grab bag of Internet subsidies. In 2013 we should look at repealing the whole thing, just as Republicans continue to press for Net Neutrality repeal . I’ve said it again and again: Sprint Nextel’s actions do not match the actions of a firm that believes it will be an oligopolist with price setting power after the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Its actions match those of a firm that fears greater 4G competition. Becuase competition is indeed what it fears , and certainly not from T-Mobile, a firm with no subsidized iPhones on offer.
Read the rest here:
Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
Not much to say tonight, which is good because I think I’m getting sick again, and if I had a lot to say I’d probably just skip tonight’s Tech. It’s official: the race for FCC handouts is on, as the FCC voted to repurpose the old rural telephone subsidy , the Universal Service Fund (a fund that comes from your special tax dollars) into a grab bag of Internet subsidies. In 2013 we should look at repealing the whole thing, just as Republicans continue to press for Net Neutrality repeal . I’ve said it again and again: Sprint Nextel’s actions do not match the actions of a firm that believes it will be an oligopolist with price setting power after the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Its actions match those of a firm that fears greater 4G competition. Becuase competition is indeed what it fears , and certainly not from T-Mobile, a firm with no subsidized iPhones on offer.
View original post here:
Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
