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Revolutionary innovation and competition have shaken up the telecommunications sector, prompting at least three important mergers. Government officials who set the rules of the game are now faced with key decisions that will affect the future of communications in America Federal regulators may approve the mergers of SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI as soo...
The next time you print a summary of your favorite James Bond film, you should consider that there might be more than one spy on the page. That's because printer manufacturers and the U.S. Secret Service have been quietly collaborating to track documents -- a worrisome revelation An announcement by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that thei...
Bold predictions about the future in The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, recently released by legendary inventor Ray Kurzweil, are causing reviewers to marvel in awe or disbelief. But while Kurzweil's forecasts are fascinating, the book's analysis of the present is just as important Amid discussions of reverse engineering the b...
Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's controversial mayor, was in the spotlight again this week as he and his staff contemplated which lucky company will get the rights to provide WiFi access around the city. The real question is, why is government making this choice rather than market forces? To many in the communications industry, particularly cable, this is a familiar situation...
The 9th Annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm (sic) Conference took place this week at Lake Tahoe. Officially, the theme was "the Singularity," an artificial intelligence term denoting the emergence of transformative technological change. But the main meme revolved around a slightly less sexy idea: kiosks Kiosks and their close cousins, vending machines, ...
Chinese officials recently announced they will no longer consider death tolls and other relevant information about natural disasters to be state secrets. On the same day, China Telecom blocked Internet phone service from Skype. That left observers wondering whether freedom is growing or decreasing in China, a tough issue for American firms Some mig...
The world's oldest person is 115 years old, and while that might seem impressive, it's only the beginning. Advances in technology are poised to usher in longer and better life spans, a reality the general public has been slow to notice and the subject of a conference this weekend at Stanford University Sponsored by the Institute for Accelerating C...
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is set to grow tenfold by 2010, but according to industry reports the leader won't be the United States. Instead, countries such as China, France, and Italy are forecast to lead. It's possible, however, that recent changes in Texas and at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will give the U.S. a boost Jus...
A new threat to national security surfaced this week and if federal agencies fail to address it, they could hamstring important tools to catch terrorists. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported this week that federal agencies are breaking privacy and security laws while conducting data-mining activities. According to the GAO, of the five federal agencies examined, "none followed all key procedures."
This week, a group of legal scholars, high government officials, Nobel prize recipients and economic experts gathered for the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss e-government, telecommunications and intellectual property, among other issues One of the more colorful speakers was Mart Laar, former president of Estonia...
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom asked for public feedback this week on a plan to create a citywide, free wireless broadband network. The response should be a no-brainer, especially in a city dubbed the number-one wireless market in the United States Getting high-speed access in San Francisco is not a problem. According to the Federal Communication...
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made an important ruling in favor of competition in broadband services. This change points the country towards greater broadband deployment, investment, and innovation The Supreme Court's Brand X decision in late June made it clear that cable companies were not required to share lines with com...
Following the example of the United Kingdom, San Francisco officials have installed two surveillance cameras in a high-crime area. This popular trend is perhaps only the beginning of an "always on" surveillance society Compared with the 4.2 million cameras installed in the UK, San Francisco's two are perhaps laughable. Even so, they made mayor Gav...
In a bold move to modernize America's outdated communications laws, this week Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) introduced the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act. It's about time Congress embraced this issue, particularly since technology has vastly changed the way communications affect economic growth Technology boosts productivity and allows...
Watching television over an Internet connection is no longer a futuristic idea for select groups in the area of San Diego, Calif. The testing of a new service called "Broadband TV" demonstrates the power of communications convergence and shows why legacy regulations governing the sector need to be shelved There's been plenty of discussion about the...
The subway and bus bombings in London on July 7th added new fuel to the continued debate over security and liberty in a high-tech world. But it remains an open question whether the two must be opposites "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety," Ben Franklin once said. That sen...
Last week, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform held hearings in Houston to discuss fixing the nation's voting system. New technologies help make most businesses more effective and efficient, so it only makes sense to upgrade America's ballot box as well E-voting machines, often referred to as direct recording electronic (DRE) ma...
The United States Supreme Court this week ruled against Brand X, a small California company that sells Internet access. This ruling is good for consumers and marks the beginning of what could be much-needed reform in broadband policy In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the high court overturned a decision that would have forced ca...
This month the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide MGM vs. Grokster, the case that could determine whether or not a peer-to-peer (P2P) company can be held liable for illegal activity on its network. The decision is key, but the future is also being shaped by the marketplace The digitization of content and the ability to share it quickly and e...
California began a series of public hearings on the SBC/AT&T merger in Oakland, Calif., this week. While the purpose is to gather public input, in reality, special interests dominate, putting the real public interest at risk An hour before the hearing took place, the meeting room was plastered with signs that could have been dusted off from the 19...
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