Regardless of having registered a phone line with the Federal Trade Commission as a telemarketer-free zone, a growing number of consumers are saying that some businesses are ignoring their stated preference and calling anyway.
Chairman Walden Proposes Cap on Universal Service Fund; Consultation with State USF Experts on Expansion Proposals
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn regarding the Universal Service Fund (USF) and proposals to expand the program.
Big disconnect: Telcos abandon copper phone lines
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Robert Post misses his phone line. Post, 85, has a pacemaker that needs to be checked once a month by phone. But the copper wiring that once connected his home to the rest of the world is gone, and the phone company refuses to restore it.
US regulations hard on small phone firms, Sen Pryor, panel hear
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
While scattered populations and difficult terrain make it hard to provide phone and Internet access in rural America, government regulatory burdens are an even bigger problem, the vice president of Arkansas-based Ritter Communications told a Senate hearing.
AT&T and Google’s plans to give Austin a gigabit is an experiment. Is it a good one?
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
AT&T executives will meet with Austin and Texas officials seeking the same concessions that Google is getting in order to build out its gigabit network. As someone who has followed telecom in Austin, and in Texas, this mostly means the ability to cherry pick where it will deploy its gigabit network. And that points to both the upside and downside of Google’s influence.
Lessons from the Derecho: When Industry Self-Regulation Is Not Enough
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The Federal Communications Commission released a fairly thorough report on the widespread 9-1-1 failure that followed the June 2012 “derecho” windstorm. The report concluded that both Verizon and Frontier failed to follow industry best practices or their own internal procedures.
The End of the Phone System
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Thank you for giving me an interesting proposition to take issue with: namely, that the phone system – whatever that means – is about to end. I’m going to explore three main points related to this proposition. First, that we should be speaking of a transition, not an endpoint. Second, that as this transition continues to unfold, federal and state governments have key roles to play in protecting consumers and promoting competition. And finally, that you should not worry about running out of interesting papers to write, because we have not yet run out of hard problems to solve, in particular crafting appropriate transitions for universal service and interconnection policies.