Telecoms Tech

Back in 2011 the FCC began collecting real-world user broadband data from customised routers, then issuing reports on which ISPs were failing to deliver advertised speeds. It's one of the few FCC policies in recent years that has truly paid dividends for consumers.

ARCEP, the French communications regulator, has announced that from October 1, 2013 Bouygues Telecom will be permitted to refarm its spectrum in the 1800MHz band in order to provide 4G services. The regulator has decided to lift the GSM restrictions from Bouygues’ 1800MHz license, provided that it relinquishes a certain amount of its holding beforehand.

Infonetics Research released excerpts of the findings that resulted from its latest global market study, which analyzed wireless communications radio frequency spectrum allocation and needs in the world’s top economies.

When you're indisputably mediocre in nearly every broadband ranking due to limited competition and regulatory capture, what's a monopoly and/or duopoly broadband market to do? For much of the last decade the U.S. broadband industry's answer to that question is to shell out millions to fauxcademics, astroturfers, paid think tankers and assorted hired flacks to argue that US broadband is secretly awesome and you just didn't know it.

As reported recently by Ezra Klein, a groundswell of support has coalesced for unlocking cell phones with the White House joining the frag aligned against the wireless carriers. The wireless industry offers several justifications, but relies principally on the ruling by Copyright Office of the Library of Congress that unauthorised unlocking of cell phones is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Your cell phone rings. You pause the movie, untangle from your significant other, and stride across the room to answer it. "Hello there!" says the cheerful recorded voice. "Are you paying too much interest on your credit card?" You stab at the hang-up button and head back to the couch, grumbling that there ought to be a law. Actually, there is.

As it promised in the wake of the recent elections, the newly appointed Mexican government has presented an extensive set of reforms that aim to transform the landscape of the telecoms sector. Most proposals appear to go in the right direction, moving toward a more competitive market, in particular the much-needed creation of a stronger and more independent regulatory body.

The sheer scale of technological change has created its own opportunities for governments to deliver more productive and innovative government services, and also to rethink some of the boundaries between the traditional roles of government and the community.