The Federal Communications Commission says it needs more time to come up with its National Broadband Plan, which was supposed to be submitted to Congress next month. The FCC said Wednesday that it is asking lawmakers to extend the February 17 deadline for its report by at least a month. The report, which the FCC …

LAS VEGAS–From new cell phones to set top boxes to emerging devices, AT&T is looking beyond the iPhone as it focuses on a rapidly expanding application business. The company’s top wireless executive, Ralph de la Vega, told developers at the company’s fourth annual application developer conference here Wednesday that AT&T’s future is in applications. AT&T wireless chief Ralph de la …

LAS VEGAS–Cisco Systems will soon be testing a home version of its TelePresence video conferencing product, the company said Wednesday from the Consumer Electronics Show here. Cisco, which is the world’s largest supplier of networking equipment, has been selling videoconferencing equipment to large companies for the past few years. Cisco’s TelePresence 500, introduced in 2008 as a simpler, cheaper version …

Updated 1/6/10 12:55 p.m. PT: More up to date information on where the Nokia Ovi store is offered has been added to this story. LAS VEGAS–Nokia on Wednesday said its Ovi application and mobile-content store is now available in the United States for AT&T wireless customers. Consumers using Nokia devices such as the E71x, the Surge, the Mural, the 6650, …

This is the last in a series of profiles that look at how the tech industry is working with the federal government. WASHINGTON, D.C.–In October 2006 Jim Cicconi, a senior executive vice president at AT&T who heads up legislative affairs, took his team of top regulatory lawyers to Gettysburg to teach them battlefield strategy. For two days, 15 senior AT&T …

Updated 3:01 p.m. PDT with information from the conference call. On the day that Research In Motion suffered another nationwide mobile e-mail outage, it announced it beat analyst expectations in the fiscal third quarter of 2009 with strong sales of its BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry Bold Research In Motion The company’s earnings were up 59 percent compared to the same quarter …

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday is scheduled to announce $2 billion in grants that will be used to build broadband networks in underserved communities. The funding, which is part of the $7.2 billion that was set aside for broadband in President Obama’s $787 billion economic recovery deal earlier this year, will start with an initial $182 million investment in …

The Federal Communications Commission is taking on difficult and controversial issues as it works toward developing a comprehensive national broadband plan. On Wednesday the agency heard from an FCC task force on the progress that it’s making in writing that broadband plan, which will be presented to Congress in February. The FCC has been tasked with developing a plan that …

WASHINGTON–The wireless and TV broadcasting industries faced off for the first time at a congressional subcommittee meeting on the Hill on Tuesday, setting in motion what could be a long drawn out battle over whether wireless spectrum should be reallocated and where the government will get this new spectrum. Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA, the wireless industry group, …

AT&T 3G wireless customers in San Francisco had problems making calls, sending and receiving text messages, and accessing data on Friday evening. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said that starting at about 4 p.m. PT on Friday afternoon, AT&T experienced a hardware issue in San Francisco that disrupted its 3G wireless network within the city. The hardware issue, which he did …