Roy Mark

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expanding its efforts to bring high-speed Internet services to rural America through the financing of more than $1.4 billion in loans and loan guarantees to rural telecommunications providers. Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman said President Bush will propose spending $196 million for the program in its 2004 budget. […]

U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R.-La.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and co-author of the controversial Tauzin-Dingell bill in the 107th Congress, called the implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act a “failure” in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week and urged the FCC to “remove regulatory impediments” to spark […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave a boost to the struggling mobile satellite service provider (MSS) industry Thursday, issuing new rules allowing satellite phone companies to build land-based towers to fill in coverage gaps. At the same time, the FCC reallocated 30 MHz of wireless spectrum previously reserved for satellite use. Crippled by weak signals […]

The White House released additional details Wednesday about President Bush’s new initiative to create a data mining Terrorist Threat Integration Center under the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to close the “seam” between analysis of foreign and domestic intelligence on terrorism. The center will have access to all intelligence information from raw reports […]

WASHINGTON — Verizon Thursday filed for a stay of last week’s court order that the phone giant comply with a subpoena by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) requesting the name of a Verizon subscriber who allegedly downloaded more than 600 copyrighted music files. Verizon also announced it had filed a notice of appeal […]

Wednesday’s decision by a U.S. appellate court clearing Rambus of fraud charges is not likely to a play a role in the recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) motion to declare a summary judgment against the Los Altos, Calif.-based semiconductor chip designer. The FTC claims Rambus has forfeited its right to a trial because of its […]

A projected 50 percent cost overrun in the FBI’s IT infrastructure upgrade program has prompted the Senate Appropriations Committee to order the FBI to try again in its 2003 budget request. The $458 million project, known as Trilogy, was criticized last month by the Department of Justice’s inspector general for its sharply rising costs and […]

Computer scientist Edward Stritter has been nominated to serve as the third and final person to serve on the overview committee charged with enforcing Microsoft’s 2001 court-ordered antitrust compliance. The committee’s primary responsibility is to deal with complaints from competitors that Microsoft isn’t complying with the terms of the settlement. Along with Stritter, the Justice […]

Two weeks after a district court in Los Angeles ruled that Australian-based Sharman Networks, the parent company of file-swapping site Kazaa, could be sued in the U.S. for alleged copyright violations, the company has filed a counterclaim, contending the recoding and film industries are engaged in copyright misuse, monopolization, and deceptive acts and practices. The […]

The U.S. Postal Service is adding two new features to its recently redesigned Web site: a hold mail service and a redelivery service. After going to www.USPS.com, users can request the Post Office to hold mail for up to 30 days or can reschedule the delivery of a package. The newly resigned site, featuring a […]

The co-sponsors of the E-Government Act sent a letter Monday to the Senate Appropriations Committee seeking to restore the $40 million funding slashed from the legislation last week. The Omnibus Appropriations Resolution passed by the Senate last week contains only $5 million of the original $45 million slated for the legislation. Joe Lieberman (D.-Conn.) and […]

U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.), Judd Gregg (R.-NH), and Patrick Leahy (D.-VT) introduced legislation Monday that aims to provide consumers with greater identity theft protections. The Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act makes it harder for identity thieves to obtain Social Security numbers by restricting public access to the number. While permitting legitimate business and […]