Has the Federal Communications Commission finally learned its lesson on spectrum management? The FCC began proceedings yesterday that could OK Dish Network’s plan to use existing spectrum to build a terrestrial 4G LTE mobile broadband network. The rulemaking follows the agency’s earlier rejection of Dish’s request for a waiver of license conditions, which prohibit using …

With the passage last week of legislation authorizing the FCC to conduct new spectrum auctions, you might think that the looming spectrum crisis has been averted. Nothing could be farther from the truth–or more dangerous to the continued health of the mobile ecosystem. To avoid severe service interruptions or outright collapse of mobile networks, the FCC’s 2010 National Broadband Plan …

commentary As the Department of Justice and now Sprint file suit to block AT&T’s pending merger with T-Mobile USA, federal judges will begin looking closely at the deal and its potential impacts on the exploding mobile services market. Let’s hope that the kind of evidence-based, rational analysis of the courtroom does a better job separating fact from fiction than the …

It’s called “regulation by merger condition.” And at the Federal Communications Commission, it’s a problem that has become epidemic. As part of a drawn-out process the agency follows for approving proposed mergers in the communications industry (where it shares review authority with the Department of Justice), companies are persuaded to volunteer or are sometimes simply forced into accepting pages and …

The usual suspects are already sharpening their knives against AT&T’s announced acquisition of T-Mobile’s U.S. business. Within hours, the Media Access Project announced that “if approved, this deal would further increase costs and decrease choices for the public.” Media reform group Free Press headlined its press release, “Consumers lose when there’s less competition.” And Public Knowledge condemned the deal as …

WASHINGTON–Hopes for a solution to the looming crisis in available radio spectrum for mobile broadband users were raised today. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) introduced legislation aimed at solving some of the biggest threats to the mobile Internet, feeding hopes of bipartisan solutions for spectrum woes in an increasingly divided Congress. “The Reforming Airwaves by Developing …

Editor’s note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. LAS VEGAS–The message at yesterday’s CES Tech Policy Summit was all about spectrum, and the looming crisis brought on by exploding demand for mobile broadband relying on limited frequencies. Speakers including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and three of his four fellow commissioners all sounded the same theme: the …

Editor’s note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. LAS VEGAS–Attendees at a standing-room-only debate over Net neutrality were treated to a rare occurrence at the Consumer Electronics Show: consensus. Unfortunately, the only thing that Federal Communications Commission and congressional officials, along with representatives from industry and public interest groups, could agree on was that the fight …

Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. After more than a year of palace dramas worthy of a Shakespeare play, the FCC voted this morning to impose new rules on Internet access providers aimed at “preserving the open Internet.” Today’s action is both anticlimactic and incomplete. Despite soap opera hand-wringing the last three weeks from …

Editors’ note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes’ bio below. As lawmakers gear up for the post-election Congress that convenes in January, the multiyear debate over new laws to keep ISPs from blocking Web sites or managing traffic in anticompetitive ways–the so-called Net neutrality rules–is heating up again. The result can be safely predicted: more wasted energy and …