AT&T is reportedly taking a $4 billion charge as a precautionary measure in case its attempted merger with T-Mobile fails to win anti-trust approval. By taking the charge, analysts believe it's a clear sign the telecom has lost confidence in the deal going through, and on top of it all, AT&T is said to have withdrawn its application to the U.S. Department of Justice.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has thrown up another roadblock in the path of AT&T’s plan to get its hand on T-Mobile USA. The FCC Chair voiced concerns over the proposed merger back around the time the DOJ filed a lawsuit seeking to block the deal. Now Genachowski has requested official hearings to take place should that suit fail to stop the merger. AT&T’s legal counsel got a little snippy upon hearing the news.
It's not quite as cheap as NetZero's short-lived free dial-up service that was popular in the late 1990s and completely supported by ads, but the FCC's plan to bring affordable broadband service to low income families is a whole lot faster, and ironically enough is even less expensive than NetZero's current "accelerated" dial-up service, which runs $14.95 a month.
In Washington today, someone got something done. If that was not shocking enough, it was the FCC. We can wait while you compose yourself. The FCC voted unanimously today to re-purpose the universal service program, which was used to get phone service to rural Americans. The fun will now be used to deliver broadband internet access to the most remote areas of the nation. 
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LightSquared has been in the news a lot in the past few months, but not for the reasons they probably would have liked. The company hopes to build a national 4G LTE network that they can charge cellular carriers to use. The only problem is that the bands used by LightSquared have been shown to interfere with GPS signals. After much hand-wringing, LightSquared now claims to have a fix ready.
Comcast has officially expanded its low-cost Internet Essentials program nationwide today. This service offers $10 per month internet access to low-income families, as well as access to $150 computers. The speeds aren’t what users of the regular cable internet service will see, at just 1.5Mbps, but Comcast has agreed to keep Internet Essentials alive for at least three years.
Reports today are indicating that AT&T really doesn’t want its acquisition of T-Mobile to fall through, and is going so far as to consider a large asset sale to seal the deal with regulators. Ma Bell is quietly chatting up smaller competitors like MetroPCS and Leap Wireless to sell spectrum and subscribers, according to sources.
Last September, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formalized a set of technical rules for the use of unused broadcast spectrum between TV frequencies (also known as “white space”), paving the way for what is being dubbed Super Wi-Fi. However, one final formality still remained: the finalization of the new wireless standard.
Net neutrality's motto is simple: Hey ISPs, don't tell us what to do with the Internet. Comcast's P2P traffic-shaping fiasco kicked the movement into high gear a few years back. The net neutrality dream took one step closer to becoming reality yesterday, as the FCC officially registered its hotly debated rules with the Office of Management and Budget – a vital step towards getting the new law on the books. There's still a hard road ahead, however; pissed-off companies are expected to throw legal challenge after legal challenge at the proposed regulations.
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