Federal Communications Commission

The television industry plans to formally submit its ratings plan to the Federal Communications Commission next week. Although FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said he expects NBC--which refused to sign on to the agreement--to submit its alternative plan for review, NBC executives said in interviews this week that the network has no intention of doing so.

The Federal Communications Commission asked the nation's major telecommunications firms and Google Inc. to explain to the agency the industry's often unpopular practice of charging consumers to end their cellphone service early, a penalty known as an early-termination fee. The agency sent a set of questions -- including asking why the fees are needed at all -- in letters to AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA and Google. "This is an essential step to ensuring that consumers have the information that helps them make informed choices in a competitive marketplace," the FCC said.

The Department of Justice, in a major antitrust review for the Obama administration, will join the Federal Communications Commission in reviewing Comcast Corp.'s deal to take control of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. The decision settles a tug of war between the department and the Federal Trade Commission, each of which sought to weigh in on the $30-billion deal announced in December. But other recent big media mergers have been swung to Justice Department lawyers, so the decision did not come as a surprise to regulatory insiders.

The first man on the moon. The assassinations of JFK and John Lennon. Political campaigns and Super Bowl games. Tornado warnings, manhunts, "MASH" and "Joe Millionaire." Since the 1950s, the free broadcast system has served as the great galvanizer and equalizer, accessible to anyone in the nation owning a rooftop antenna and a TV. Even today, most Americans get their news from TV broadcasters.

Sex Mob, a New York band that records for a small music label, was good enough to nab a Grammy nomination last year for best contemporary jazz album. But it wasn't good enough to be heard on commercial radio. That now may change. Four of the nation's largest radio-station chains have agreed to air thousands of hours of music from independent record labels and local musicians.

When Sherrie P. Marshall headed off to a Massachusetts tennis camp last summer, her companions were two lobbyists--one for the Fox network, the other for CBS. The Federal Communications Commission member insists that the agenda called for "lobbing, not lobbying." But the lobbyists had reason to stay close. Marshall is their key opponent on the powerful government agency in the networks' multibillion-dollar battle with Hollywood over ownership of television programs and selling of reruns.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi rarely find themselves on the same side of the aisle. But when the Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2 to ease media ownership restrictions last week, a bipartisan jolt rattled Capitol Hill, tossing together the liberal Boxer, the conservative Lott and scores of other lawmakers positioned somewhere in between.

The Supreme Court this week may reopen for the first time in more than 30 years the debate over what qualifies as an "indecent" broadcast. The media environment has changed dramatically since 1978, when the court last ruled on this issue: Today's viewers and listeners are exposed to the more freewheeling cable TV, Internet and "shock jocks" on satellite radio.

Federal regulators on Tuesday approved the largest ever expansion of wireless Internet access, unanimously backing a controversial plan to allow a new generation of devices to use the empty airwaves between television channels to go online. Dubbed "Wi-Fi on steroids" by its supporters in the high-tech industry, the plan promises to offer wireless Internet service across America -- most likely for free -- and spur new systems for transmitting video and other data between devices in homes.

The highest bidder in the multibillion-dollar sale of prime airwaves disclosed its plans for the wireless spectrum Friday, and the most prominent loser explained why it was still a big winner. A day after rules prohibiting participants in the federal government's online auction from discussing their strategies lifted, Verizon Wireless said it would use the new capacity to roll out faster wireless Internet service by 2010. Verizon outbid Google Inc., paying $4.

The Federal Communications Commission asked the nation's major telecommunications firms and Google Inc. to explain to the agency the industry's often unpopular practice of charging consumers to end their cellphone service early, a penalty known as an early-termination fee. The agency sent a set of questions -- including asking why the fees are needed at all -- in letters to AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA and Google. "This is an essential step to ensuring that consumers have the information that helps them make informed choices in a competitive marketplace," the FCC said.

The Department of Justice, in a major antitrust review for the Obama administration, will join the Federal Communications Commission in reviewing Comcast Corp.'s deal to take control of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. The decision settles a tug of war between the department and the Federal Trade Commission, each of which sought to weigh in on the $30-billion deal announced in December. But other recent big media mergers have been swung to Justice Department lawyers, so the decision did not come as a surprise to regulatory insiders.

Facing a major regulatory issue, AT&T Inc. has unleashed the kind of lobbying blitz that makes it one of the grand corporate players of the great Washington game. And yet, for all the money AT&T and other old-line telecom and cable companies have spent pushing their cause, they are poised to lose a key vote to a bunch of newer tech companies that never had anything to do with Washington until recently. If the Federal Communications Commission votes today in favor of crafting rules to let the government oversee access to the Internet, it could be a sign of a fundamental shift of power under the Obama administration.

The Federal Communications Commission is looking into complaints by AT&T Inc. that the Google Voice phone service blocks some calls within the United States to avoid a high connection fee. The FCC sent an inquiry to Google Inc. on Friday seeking information about the software's functionality, the number of users and the identity of its partners. Google Voice allows users to consolidate their home, office and cellphone numbers by routing the calls through a central Google number.

The nation's chief telecommunications regulator on Wednesday reiterated the Obama administration's call for rules to ensure the free flow of Internet traffic, regardless of whether the data traveled over wired Internet connections or over wireless cellular networks. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, in a speech to wireless-industry executives attending the CTIA conference here, said the administration's goal in creating rules would be to eliminate "confusion" over the nation's so-called net neutrality policy, which has existed as a guideline rather than a mandate.

New rules proposed by the nation's chief communications regulator to ensure unfettered access to the Internet would level the online playing field as more people surf the Web on mobile devices, but the plan has wireless carriers in an uproar. Monday's proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski would ensure that consumers would be able to get whatever content they want on the Internet and to use any service they want. But the telecommunications and the cable companies that control both land-line and wireless access to the Internet argue that some customers who download large amounts of data, such as a continuous flow of movies, can jam their networks.

The nation's biggest cable operator can now get bigger. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with Comcast Corp. and against the Federal Communications Commission on Friday in a closely watched case over how many of the nation's roughly 100 million cable TV subscribers one company should be allowed to serve. In throwing out the FCC's rules that no cable company can serve more than 30% of the nation's TV marketplace, the court said the regulatory agency did not factor in competition in the form of satellite television in its arguments for why the industry should not be allowed to expand.

Expanding high-speed Internet access throughout the United States is a top priority for Julius Genachowski as he starts his term as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski and the agency are charged by President Obama and Congress with helping to ensure that all Americans can participate in the ongoing technological revolution that is integrating broadband with television and other devices beyond the computer.

Two days before the nation's television stations switch off their analog signals, the acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission visited Los Angeles to warn that too many Southern California residents still weren't ready for the change Friday to all-digital TV broadcasts. Michael J. Copps said he feared that as many as 20% of households in major U.S. cities still rely on over-the-air analog broadcasts.

Federal regulators shepherding the U.S. digital television transition visited Los Angeles on Monday and asked for divine assistance. Broadcasters turn off their analog signals in just over four months, and Federal Communications Commission staffers can't make sure that people buy and set up the converter boxes they'll need for their older TV sets that are hooked up to antennas. Who can? Ministers.