WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association used a member survey to bolster its argument that Americans living in rural communities served by non-regional Bell operating companies have access to broadband services. Those services are defined as 200 kilobits per second of data transmission in one...
WASHINGTON-A dispute among Democrats during a House panel debate on telecom reform underscored how lawmakers' views of network neutrality often corresponds to whether they think telephone companies should be allowed to compete in the TV space. In the end, a watered-down telecom reform bill,...
WASHINGTON—Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) is expected to introduce telecom reform legislation, dubbed the Broadband for America Act of 2006, meant to jumpstart discussion in the Senate by combining five already-introduced bills. One existing bill calls for using TV white spaces for unlicensed use, another...
WASHINGTON-Rural carriers have received few, if any, requests for customers to switch from wireline to wireless, according to a survey released Monday by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, which represents rural carriers."Results indicate strikingly minimal take rates for wireline-to-wireless local number portability, ranging from...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday told the Federal Communications Commission it could not use any of its money to impose a primary-line restriction on universal-service subsidies."None of the funds appropriated by this act may be used by the FCC to modify, amend or...
WASHINGTON-The Montana Public Service Commission last week said that 11 rural wireline carriers could delay intermodal local number portability to no later than Jan. 1, 2006, and Western Wireless Corp. must reimburse them for terminating calls to their customers until Western Wireless can reach...
WASHINGTON-Western Wireless Corp. went on the defensive Aug. 5, filing suit in federal court in Nebraska against the Nebraska Public Service Commission and several rural local exchange carriers, objecting to a NPSC waiver granted to the RLECs removing their responsibilities to implement intermodal porting."The...
WASHINGTON-Rural local exchange carrier CenturyTel Inc. has agreed to pay the Federal Communications Commission $100,000 and set up procedures and systems to properly route ported wireless numbers, according to an agreement between the carrier and government."The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association thinks it is...
WASHINGTON-CenturyTel Inc. has agreed to pay the Federal Communications Commission $100,000 and set up procedures and systems to properly route ported wireless numbers, according to a consent decree released by the FCC Monday."The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association thinks it is a very important...
High-profile nationwide carriers and niche-focused mobile virtual network operators are not the only wireless service providers that stand to benefit from specific marketing geared toward the highly desirable youth market. A survey released last week by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the Foundation...
WASHINGTON-The Small Business Administration said late Thursday it was withdrawing from a court case that rural wireline carriers had filed against the Federal Communications Commission regarding the intermodal local number portability rules."In the settlement, the Office of Advocacy agreed to withdraw its intent to...
A youth-oriented consumer survey released by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association and the Foundation for Rural Service found that rural wireless customers between the ages of 18 and 24 could prove a more appealing target for rural telecommunications providers than their urban counterparts.The third...
WASHINGTON-As local number portability goes nationwide today, rural Americans who want to port their wireline phone numbers to wireless carriers may find the deadline is a bit elastic."Right now, there are still a lot of waivers pending so it is like waiting for a...
WASHINGTON-Even as two wireless carriers left the forum trying to resolve carrier compensation issues, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said that wireless participation in intercarrier compensation reform is essential, and it is likely government will have to resolve the issue."We are going to have to...
The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association said Friday it will support waiver requests from small wireline carriers hoping to delay the May 24 rural wireless local number portability deadline."NTCA is stunned by the vehement attempts by large carriers to oppose valid requests from these small...
WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association said Friday it will vigorously support waiver requests from small wireline carriers hoping to delay the May 24 rural wireless local number portability deadline."NTCA is stunned by the vehement attempts by large carriers to oppose valid requests from these...
WASHINGTON-The Rural Telecommunications Group announced it has made Jessica Bridges its new chief executive officer.Bridges previously served as director of government affairs for Bennet & Bennet P.L.L.C., responsible for legislative lobbying before the Federal Communications Commission and Congress on behalf of rural telecommunications firms....
WASHINGTON-A group of senators, many of them alumni of the 1996 Farm Team, are urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject a recommendation to restrict universal-service subsidies to primary lines. "Imposing a primary-line restriction whereby neither second lines nor cell phones are included for...
WASHINGTON-Members of the United States Senate, many of them alumni of the 1996 Farm Team, are preparing a letter to be sent to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to reject a recommendation to restrict universal-service subsidies to primary lines."Imposing a primary-line restriction whereby...
WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court's interest in how the Federal Communications Commission solves carrier compensation issues could pre-empt a telecom industry group's efforts to solve the problem.William Maher, chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau, said he hasn't given the industry group a deadline yet,...
WASHINGTON-Wireless carriers and alternative telecom carriers decried a recommendation to restrict universal service subsidies to one line per household.The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, created to find a way to fix the Universal Service Fund before it runs out of money, said one...
WASHINGTON-The Small Business Administration said on Feb. 13 that it will join the appeals court challenge of the intermodal local number portability rules."Advocacy will reach out to the Federal Communications Commission to discuss alternative means to resolve the small business issues in this challenge...
WASHINGTON-Two months after the long-awaited wireless local number portability rules became effective, signs continue to point that porting phone numbers is still not a smooth transition.After spending several years of foot-dragging, the wireless industry-with prodding from the Federal Communications Commission-did a major media push...
WASHINGTON-The last gasp by the wireline industry to delay wireless local number portability was thwarted late Friday when a federal appeals court denied the emergency stay request of four rural wireline carriers and set a briefing schedule for a separate petition by the United...
