Roy Mark

Nearly half of all consumers now have a broadband connection, but the rate of high-speed growth in America is slowing, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew’s latest research shows 47 percent of Americans have a high-speed connection at home, compared to 42 percent in early 2006 and […]

UPDATED: SAP conceded today that its subsidiary, TomorrowNow (TN), engaged in “inappropriate” downloads of Oracle support materials. But SAP CEO Henning Kagermann insisted his company did not access Oracle’s intellectual property. In its first formal response to a March lawsuit filed by Oracle accusing SAP of “massive theft,” the German software giant said TomorrowNow was […]

Leave it to a Washington insider to find an iPhone angle to spin a controversial policy debate on spectrum. With approximately 500,000 iPhone moving off the shelves over the weekend, former Federal Communications Commission (FFC) Chairman Reed Hundt is effusive in his praise for the new Apple device. But it’s too bad, he added, that […]

Unable to muster 60 votes to cut off debate, Senate Democrats today tabled their efforts to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill, including provisions that would have raised the cap on H1-B visas from the current 65,000 to 115,000. A favorite of the technology industry, H1-B visas allow U.S. companies to sponsor foreign born U.S. […]

Lawmakers should proceed “very cautiously” in considering the imposition of network neutrality rules on broadband carriers, according to a new report published today by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The 170-page FTC staff report is end work of the Internet Access Task Force, which was organized in August 2006 to investigate what FTC Chairman Deborah […]

The United States continues to lag behind most industrialized nations in broadband speeds, according to a new report by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The CWA report, based on approximately 70,000 people who tested their broadband speed on the union’s site, found an average U.S. speed of 1.9 megabits per second (mbps). Japan, by […]

WASHINGTON – Google  got a thumbs down today on its last-minute effort to inject itself in the Microsoft  antitrust compliance proceedings. Instead, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Google should take its complaints to the Department of Justice (DoJ). Google has objected that Windows Vista desktop search is configured to favor Microsoft over other desktop […]

WASHINGTON – Verizon would suffer no lasting harm if an injunction facing Vonage is lifted in its patent infringement fight with Verizon, the upstart online telephony company today told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Vonage attorney Roger Wren said even if Vonage loses it appeal, the $58 million in damages and […]

A year ago, Sergey Brin made a visit to Washington. The co-founder of Google was greeted with snickers in many quarters of this town. His attire — jeans, a black T-shirt and silver mesh sneakers –- earned more comments than his opinions, which weren’t really known since most lawmakers refused to meet with him. This […]

The International Trade Commission (ITC) has denied Qualcomm’s motion to stay an ITC order banning the import of future models of 3G mobile broadband handsets containing Qualcomm chipsets and software. The U.S. import ban follows a December 2006 ITC ruling that found the San Diego-based Qualcomm’s cellular chips and software infringe on a Broadcom patent […]

To ban or not to ban? State and local governments support the moratorium on Internet connection taxes, but only on a temporary basis. The benefits of broadband deployment, they admit, offset the revenue loss to state and local governments. But a permanent ban? Not so good, they said Thursday. Contrast that with technology executives and […]

The sounds of silence will be deafening Tuesday when webcasters plan to cut their feeds for a day to protest an increase in Internet radio royalty rates. The idea, event organizers say, is to give listeners a taste of what will happen if the new rates actually kick in on July 15. The national “Day […]