Roy Mark

Claiming a major competitive advantage over rival chip makers, Broadcom said Oct. 15 it has developed a low-power, single-chip processor that integrates all major features of 3G technology. The BCM21551—code-named Zeus—combines a high-speed third-generation baseband, a multiband radio frequency transceiver, Bluetooth, and an FM radio receiver and transmitter. The device also features advanced multimedia processing, […]

Under legislation approved by a House panel, VOIP providers would have direct access to the nations E911 system in order to comply with Federal Communications Commission rules mandating Internet telephone companies provide customers with emergency calling services. Currently, E911 calls from VOIP (voice over IP) customers are routed to third parties, such as telephone companies […]

AT&T won a partial victory Oct. 11 when the Federal Communications Commission granted the nations largest carrier regulatory relief on some charges to business customers and rivals using AT&Ts broadband lines. The FCC gave similar relief to Verizon last year. The FCCs decision enables AT&T, of San Antonio, Texas, to keep pricing information confidential instead […]

Seeking improved data about the availability and speed of broadband connections in the United States, a House subcommittee Oct. 10 approved legislation to change the Federal Communications Commissions methodology for determining deployment. Currently, the FCC counts a single broadband subscriber in a five-digit zip code as representing high-speed access for the entire zip code. Democrats […]

Having settled its patent litigation with Sprint, Vonage filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 10 seeking to reverse that courts decision upholding two of three infringement verdicts favoring Verizon. “This move represents the next logical step for Vonage in managing this litigation and continuing to move our business forward,” Vonage […]

Rejecting Republican calls for a permanent ban on Internet connection taxes, the House Judiciary Committee Oct. 10 voted to extend the current temporary moratorium—set to expire Nov. 1—for another four years. The nine-year-old Internet Tax Fairness Act of 1998 bars state and local governments from taxing broadband connections and imposing other levies and fees that […]

Despite the Oct. 8 dismissal of CEO Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel is likely to push full speed ahead with its $5 billion plans to deploy a 4G WiMax network, according to Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at JupiterResearch. “I think [Sprint Nextel] is going to continue pretty strongly with WiMax,” Gartenberg said from […]

With speculation swirling about AT&Ts participation in Januarys 700MHz spectrum auction, the nations largest wireless carrier hedged its bet Oct. 9 by acquiring the 700MHz licenses of Aloha Partners for $2.5 billion. Aloha Partners, a Delaware limited partnership, holds licenses for UHF channels 54 and 59. The all cash deal will give AT&T 12MHz of […]

Officials with Samsung, the worlds second-largest cell-phone maker, said Oct. 7 they are shipping its new 3G handsets with Broadcom chips. The collaboration extends a deal first struck last year between the two companies for Samsung to launch Broadcoms first-generation 3G technology. The Broadcom 3G cellular solutions selected by Samsung, of Seoul, South Korea, for […]

The Federal Communications Commission will not pursue an investigation of telecoms cooperation with the National Security Agencys wiretapping activities. According to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, in Washington, such a probe would “pose an unnecessary risk of damage to national security.” AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have been singled out in a number of accounts […]