The proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA’s wireless communications business by AT&T raises serious competition policy issues that require careful analysis by the Federal Communications Commission and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The proposed transaction would reduce the number of national wireless carriers from four to three, and more importantly, create an…
Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has introduced long awaited legislation to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that sets the ground rules for law enforcement to gather electronic information on citizens. The existing ECPA law was written before the modern Internet had developed. We now rely more on computing, including cloud computing, and face complex issues…
Senators Leahy, Hatch and Grassley are reintroducing legislation, which will impose a mandate on additional industries to enforce copyright laws. Instead of COICA, the new acronym appears to sound less controversial – PROTECT IP. Like COICA, the new legislation would have the Attorney General serve court orders demanding credit card companies, ad networks and domain…
After putting AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Cellular South CEOs under oath, Senators on the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust asked tough questions about what the deal would really mean for the prices and service available to all mobile phone and Internet customers. Chairman Kohl admonished AT&T’s CEO as a fellow businessman not to pretend the merger…
After putting AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Cellular South CEOs under oath, Senators on the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust asked tough questions about what the deal would really mean for the prices and service available to all mobile phone and Internet customers. Chairman Kohl admonished AT&T’s CEO as a fellow businessman not to pretend the merger…
AT&T has filed official paperwork to gobble another competitor with the agency charged with protecting the public interest and competition in a vital industry. That agency, the FCC, had already found a lack of competition among wireless carriers in its latest report. The FCC indicated in a public notice last week it had already begun…
AT&T has filed official paperwork to gobble another competitor with the agency charged with protecting the public interest and competition in a vital industry. That agency, the FCC, had already found a lack of competition among wireless carriers in its latest report. The FCC indicated in a public notice last week it had already begun…