Verizon, America’s largest wireless network, pulled a rabbit out of its corporate hat last month, announcing a multi-billion dollar deal to buy spectrum from cable-TV giants Comcast and Time Warner and the smaller, Syracuse, NY-based Bright House Networks. Sound familiar? AT&T, number two in wireless, made a similarly surprising move …
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By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: AT&T, Ronald Coase, Spectrum, Verizon | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
 Leave a commentThe trend toward wireless voice calling at prices more akin to data plan pricing continued this week with the unveiling of AT&T’s Call International App. The free app (which works on most of AT&T’s smartphones) dramatically cuts the cost of voice rates when the phone is connected to … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: apps, AT&T, smartphones | Category: Quick Takes, Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentHeard about Viber yet? It’s an app for the iPhone and for Android smartphones, the neatest means yet for making virtually free phone calls and sending free text messages to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Oh, and did we mention that the voice quality is typically superior … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Android, FCC, iPhone, Viber | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentThe Department of Justice has come out with guns blazing in an effort to stop the $39 billion AT&T/T-Mobile USA merger. But is it really in the interest of either the antitrust bureaucracy—or the consumers they are supposed to represent—to put the kibosh on this one? There’s a legitimate dispute here. … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: AT&T, Mergers and acquisitions, T-Mobile, United States Department of Justice, wireless | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
2 commentsCalifornia’s Public Utilities Commission has decided to investigate the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, making no bones about the PUC’s concern that the merged companies’ combined market share in the state (47 percent) would be anti-competitive. Maybe, but there’s an irony here. AT&T’s goal is to use T-Mobile’s surplus spectrum … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Antitrust, AT&T, California Public Utilities Commission, merger, Spectrum, T-Mobile | Category: Quick Takes, Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentEverybody agrees that distracted drivers are bad drivers, whether the source of the distraction is a cell phone or a Double Whopper with Cheese. The issue is what to do about it. The Economist suggests that distracted driving should be treated like drunk driving with a mix of tough … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: distracted driving, drunk driving, Google, The Economist | Category: Quick Takes, Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentFederal law tries to have it both ways, allowing the cable companies to own cable channels, but barring them from discriminating against rival channels. Trouble is, this puts the FCC in the position of calling balls and strikes on what constitutes discrimination. And the commission’s decision last year to reverse … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: anti-discrimination rules, FCC, Robert Litan, Time Warner | Category: Quick Takes, Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentScott Cleland of the Precursorblog.com argues that Apple and Google have different incentives to respect the privacy of their customers. He correctly points out that Google makes its money from advertising, while Apple thrives on selling trend-setting gadgets like iPhones and iPads (Note to self: Did someone forget … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Apple, Bing, Google, Internet privacy, Microsoft, Precursorblog, Scott Cleland, two-sided market, Yahoo! | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentSoon smartphones, tablets and as-yet barely imagined gadgets will be as ubiquitous as MP3 players, opening the door to a wireless future in which everything from professional sports to MRI scans will be available on demand anytime, anywhere. Or maybe not: much turns on the outcome of a struggle between … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Broadband, FCC, Genachowski, LTE, Spectrum, wireless | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
Leave a commentEconomists Greg Rosston and Scott Wallsten argue that the FCC should take the cash now collected from everybody’s phone bills to extend voice service to poor people and remote areas, and redirect the money to high-speed Internet service (read broadband). They recommend experimenting to see which approaches to … |
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