Kenneth Corbin

WASHINGTON — A Senate panel today heard two very different stories about the effect of exclusive arrangements between wireless carriers and device makers, like the one that makes Apple’s iPhone available only to AT&T subscribers. “Exclusive device deals lead to lower prices,” Paul Roth, AT&T’s president of retails sales and services, told members of the […]

Rep. Eric Massa, a freshman Democrat from New York, today announced plans to introduce a bill that would require ISPs to secure regulatory approval before rolling out a pricing model that would charge consumers based on how much they use their Internet connection. Massa’s bill stems from a dispute earlier this year over Time Warner […]

The portion of adult Americans with broadband access in their homes has risen to 63 percent, a 15 percent increase from a year earlier, according to a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The steep climb came despite an increase in the average cost consumers reported paying for broadband service, suggesting […]

Julius GenachowskiSource: Launchbox Digital WASHINGTON — Julius Genachowski, President Obama’s nominee to chair the Federal Communications Commission, sailed through a breezy confirmation hearing this afternoon, but several members of a Senate panel emphasized the enormity of the task ahead of him. The senators gave no indication that he will have any trouble securing a final […]

WASHINGTON — One of the loudest voices in tech just plugged in the amplifier. Gary Shapiro, the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), today unveiled what he called the “innovation movement,” a broad-based lobbying effort that aims to press Congress for legislation that will spur innovation and promote the tech sector. “Innovation […]

It really was just a matter of time. Facebook has eclipsed rival social network MySpace in terms of unique visitors in the United States, according to online metrics firm comScore. In May, Facebook logged 70.29 million U.S. visitors, edging out MySpace, which saw 70.24 million uniques. In April, MySpace beat out Facebook by about 3.5 […]

A handful of U.S. senators are growing increasingly concerned with the exclusivity agreements that wireless carriers are signing with device makers. The most notable example, and certainly the one that has drawn the loudest criticism, is AT&T’s (NYSE: T) deal with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to be the sole U.S. carrier that supports the iPhone, but […]

As Julius Genachowski, President Obama’s appointee to head the Federal Communications Commission, heads for his confirmation hearing tomorrow, a handful of activist groups are looking to get him on the record about the open Internet right off the bat. Confirmation hearings for some of Obama’s other tech-related appointments, including Gary Locke for Commerce Secretary and […]

After opening the floodgates to its highly-anticipated vanity URLs, Facebook has converted the addresses for millions of its users from a random string of numbers to a personalized Web address. Facebook opened its username registration page at 12:01 ET Saturday morning, and doled out more than 500,000 user names in 15 minutes, according to Facebook […]

Today’s the big day! The nationwide switchover from analog to digital television broadcasts, originally scheduled for Feb. 17, is in full-swing today. Sadly, despite the prolific education efforts of the Federal Communications Commission and television broadcasters, 2.8 million households aren’t ready for the transition, according to the latest figures from Nielsen. By demographic, Nielsen found […]

WASHINGTON — The military and intelligence communities aren’t known as the vanguard of the Web 2.0 revolution, but they’re warming up to it. Here at Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) office in the nation’s capital, a trio of officials from the Army and CIA described their efforts to introduce a technology framework based on openness, data sharing […]

The majority of Americans have tapped into the Internet for healthcare information, giving rise to a new class of e-patients who are increasingly comparing notes with each other about medical issues, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. In a telephone survey conducted in partnership with the […]