Roy Mark

With an unprecedented demand for mobile devices and services expected in the near future, the scramble is on for the one thing all cell phones, PDAs, iPhones and other wireless devices need: spectrum. But outside of the much anticipated January 700 MHz auction, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) isn’t planning on selling anymore spectrum at […]

The lesson of 9/11 for civilians and first responders can be stated simply: in the new age of terror, they — we — are the primary targets. The losses America suffered that day demonstrated both the gravity of the terrorist threat and the commensurate need to prepare ourselves to meet it. — 9/11 Commission Report […]

It once all seemed so inevitable, so cut and dried, so business as usual in Washington. By the end of January, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to auction off a large swath of spectrum ideal for delivering wireless broadband and other advanced wireless services. Less than a year ago, it was considered a foregone […]

A possible Google entry into the wireless broadband market received a boost today with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin endorsing dedicating a portion of the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction to open access requirements. According to an FCC source, Martin has finished a draft set of rules for the January auction that would […]

Data breaches are frequent, but evidence of actual identity theft resulting from the breaches is limited, according to a new report by the General Accountability Office (GAO). The report, issued late last week, found more than 570 data breaches were reported in the news media from January 2005 through December 2006. The incidents occurred across […]

Motorola continued its expansion into IPTV with the acquisition Thursday of Modulus Video, a privately held maker of MPEG-4 advanced video coding (ATV) compression systems. Founded in 2002, Modulus’ ATV encoders will provide Motorola with a software-centric platform that manages bandwidth, delivering standard- and high-definition services for the IPTV, cable, broadcast and satellite markets. The […]

A federal appeals court has upheld a 2004 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling that Voice over IP services are interstate in nature and not subject to state public utility regulation. The ruling gives the FCC the responsibility and obligation to decide which regulations apply to Internet telephony. The ruling is a significant victory for Vonage […]

IBM and Cisco hope to turn the debate over crisis communications from a hardware issue to a service solution, launching today a service based on a managed approach. Most efforts to maintain continuous access to critical infrastructure during and after storms like Hurricane Katrina and terrorist attacks are focused on product-based, individual solutions for crisis […]

Verizon and AT&T dodged a major legislative bullet on mandated network neutrality in the Republican-controlled 109th Congress. They had to give up on a major telecom-reform bill that contained many plums for the telcos, but the two telephone giants were more than willing to make that trade-off. Not that a Democratic-controlled 110th Congress will make […]

I went virtual the other day and ended up in real life on CNN. Things like that can happen when you teleport into the Virtual Capitol Hill at Second Life, the online virtual world site where users create their own universes. The Internet has already brought e-mail, fund raising, blogs and virtual grassroots movements to […]