September 2008

Mobile telephone service providers are trying to block a plan to create a free, nationwide wireless broadband network by insisting on protections from interference that would make it impossible to deliver wireless broadband, according to the company proposing the network. Mobile carriers, led by T-Mobile, are insisting on interference protections for their existing spectrum that goes beyond any current protections and would disqualify several widely used products that currently emit low levels of energy in the radio spectrum, including microwave ovens and Wi-Fi equipment, said officials with M2Z Networks, a startup that proposed building a free wireless network on unused spectrum. The two sides are now arguing about the interference questions before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which has released its own proposal to auction spectrum for a free, nationwide network. Mobile carriers don't want a free broadband network that would compete with their own services, John Muleta, M2Z's CEO, said at a Monday press briefing previewing an M2Z filing to the FCC.

The open-access policy debate, which raged last year and then curiously subsided after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency should not force wireless networks to give unfettered access to third-party devices and applications, is once again alive. The issue appears to have been re-energized by a confluence of forces, though there is little indication the cellphone industry -- whose largest players have vowed to loosen their iron-clad grip on networks -- is losing any ground in its campaign to fend off a wholesale open-access mandate.

Internet companies led by Google Inc. joined groups representing Web users in challenging the Bush administration's bid to toughen international enforcement against copyright pirates. Testifying before Commerce Department in Washington today, Google urged the U.S. to exclude from a proposed treaty provisions on the sale of copyrighted movies and music on the Internet. The administration is negotiating the treaty with the European Union, Japan and other nations. The companies said the U.S. courts and Congress are still working out the correct balance between protecting copyrights and the free exchange of information on the Web and a treaty could be counterproductive. They also said their views deserve equal consideration with those of the movie and recording industries.

Phone customers who make calls through the Internet in Kansas may see higher bills come January. On Monday, the Kansas Corporation Commission issued an order requiring voice-over-Internet-protocol services -- also known as VoIP -- to kick into a state fund that assures phone service is available to everyone, especially hard-to-serve rural areas. Customers of regular phone companies have paid the Kansas universal service charge for years, but Internet phone providers haven't until now. The commission order requires VoIP companies to pay 4.65 percent of their Kansas revenue to the fund --the same as traditional phone companies pay. The VoIP companies can absorb the cost or pass it on to customers in a bill charge, said commission spokeswoman Rosemary Foreman. Because VoIP companies operate outside state regulation, no one knows how many Kansas customers they have, said Sandy Reams, managing auditor for the commission. She estimated that VoIP companies make about $35 million a year in Kansas. She estimated their universal service payments will be about $1.6 million.