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Imagine paying $556 million for a house and then the seller — after cashing your check — says you have to wait an extra four months before you can move in. That's sort of like what is happening to Qualcomm Inc. The San Diego-based company paid more than a half-billion dollars in a government airwaves auction last year for the right to use radio frequencies currently occupied by television broadcasters.  >>

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced an online effort to write national broadband strategy legislation. Durbin says he will be crafting legislation based on the input he gets during those sessions. He will then post drafts of that legislation online. >>

Today, the Well Connected Project of the Center for Public Integrity is excited to launch an issue portal jointly with Congresspedia. This issue portal is a wiki, like Wikipedia, creating a collection of articles on telecom, media and technology policy. >>

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2007 –Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., held up a shiny new iPhone during a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill to illustrate the dilemma facing millions of American consumers: the device only works on AT&T's cellular network. >>

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2007 – A top AT&T executive on Monday told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency should reject encumbrances on radio frequencies that the agency is scheduled to put up for auction. >>

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2007 – The Federal Trade Commission intends to monitor the information that telecom and cable companies provide about high-speed Internet service in the service plans they offer to customers. >>

The podcast of Drew Clark's keynote speech at EDUCAUSE is now available an online podcast. The session addressed the way educational users of computing and communication should be attuned to the lobbying fault lines that affect all of these sectors. >>

Don't forget to join Drew Clark and the rest of the 'Well Connected' Project, and others, at the conference on broadband statistics, which is taking place today at the National Academy of Sciences, at 2100 C Street NW, Washington, DC, at 9:30 a.m. >>

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 – Some 14,000 webcasters went offline Tuesday in protest of a copyright royalty rate increase that they argue threatens the livelihood of their industry, according to a non-profit group leading the protest.  >>

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2007 – AT&T is considering a bid for wireless spectrum even if the phone giant has to share those airwaves with competitors and public safety agencies, an executive said last week. >>

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2007 – A bill introduced in the House Thursday would expand low power FM (LPFM) radio licenses to noncommercial and other community radio stations.  >>

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2007 – The chief executive of the United Kingdom's Intellectual Property Office said last week that governments' analyses of copyrights and patents should be driven by economic considerations, and should allow more flexibility for use >>

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2007 – A generation after teenagers were first granted the right to vote on July 1, 1971, 18- to 21-year olds are poised to make a greater contribution to the 2008 election campaign than ever before. >>

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2007 — Arizona Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain hopes that the Federal Communication Commission will follow his legislation as the agency drafts rules governing a block of spectrum set for auction by January 2008. >>

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2007 — A longtime conservative affiliated with prominent evangelical groups has thrown his support behind the proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio — a company whose uncensored programming includes the  >>

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2007 – Entertainment companies must meet consumer needs with online digital content and cannot rely on technological controls to combat piracy, university leaders on Tuesday told the House Committee on Science and Technology. >>

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2007 – XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio have tapped one of Washington's top lobbying firms, Quinn Gillespie and Associates, to help oil the regulatory machinery needed to approve their proposed merger. >>

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2007 – A handful of lawmakers from both political parties have come out against the proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, saying the deal would stifle competition and harm consumers. >>

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on Thursday reiterated his position that the proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio faces a high regulatory hurdle. >>

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2007 – The National Association of Broadcasters has enlisted the recently re-minted lobbying firm of Bluewater Strategies in its quest to combat the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. >>

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2007 – The Federal Communications Commission needs better data about broadband deployment before substantive policy efforts can be made to accelerate broadband deployment, industry and non-profit groups agreed before a House panel. >>

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2007 – Lawmakers on Capitol Hill concerned about the United States' broadband deployment have focused on a Kentucky-based project that says it has expanded broadband access to underserved areas in the state.  >>

Drew Clark will be keynoting the EDUCAUSE Policy 2007 conference on Wednesday, May 16, speaking about "the fault lines in telecom, media and technology lobbying." He will also attend the Aspen Institute conference on spectrum policy on May 17 and 18. >>

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2007 – U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., could potentially benefit from a merger between satellite radio companies XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc., public documents show. >>

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2007 – Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell's former boss met with him last week to lobby him against the proposed merger between the satellite radio companies XM Radio Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc., according to  >>

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2007 – Earlier this week, former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore met with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a one-time political ally, to press for the rejection of the proposed merger between XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. >>

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2007 – Although the United States has slipped in a global ranking of national broadband penetration, panelists appearing before a Senate Commerce Committee on broadband competitiveness on Tuesday differed on whether the U.S. was truly falling behind other nations. >>

April 18, 2007 – Former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore has been hired to lobby the Federal Communications Commission against approval of the merger of XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, according to agency disclosure documents.  >>

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2007 – Radio talk-show host Don Imus's racial comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team were highly offensive, but didn't break indecency laws, the head of the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday. >>

WASHINGTON, April 14 – Federal Communications Commissioner Deborah Tate has received talking points against the proposed satellite radio XM-Sirius merger from Clear Channel Radio, one of the country's biggest radio broadcasters and an ardent opponent of t >>

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2007 – The wireless industry association CTIA has retained an economic consulting firm run by the former boss of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to poke holes in proposals modifying a forthcoming auction of radio frequencies. >>

WASHINGTON, March 27, 2007 – Digital rights management (DRM) technologies have frustrated users of BitTorrent's recently launched video downloading service, company CEO said Tuesday at a Consumer Electronics Association forum. >>

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2007 –Tech giants Cisco and Motorola traded jabs Monday over the future of public safety communications.  >>

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2007 –The Federal Communications Commission should update its definition of "high-speed" Internet access and overhaul the way it tracks broadband penetration, a panel of telecommunications experts said Friday. >>

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2007 — With XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio facing questions from consumer groups and from social conservatives over the planned merger of the companies, the companies on Wednesday offered new concessions in their bid t >>

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2007 — The official responsible for administering copyright in the United States offered two new options to change copyright rules governing digital music licensing at a Thursday hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, >>

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2007 – House Democrats on Wednesday pressed the Federal Communications Commission to develop a national strategy to bring affordable, high-speed Internet to the entire country. >>

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2007 – The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Tuesday released a paper about the entertainment industry's move to take copyright controls global. >>

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2007 – Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on Congress Wednesday to pass sweeping privacy legislation that would better protect consumers' personal information online.  >>

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2007 – The country's two satellite television companies have joined forces with four major technology companies and a wireless company to promote the auction of frequencies currently used by television broadcasters. >>

WASHINGTON, March 4, 2007 – More needs to be done to educate the public that beginning in 2009, millions of older television sets in the United States will no longer receive broadcast signals unless outfitted with a digital-to-analog signal converter box, >>

WASHINGTON, March 2, 2007 — A new coalition representing local government groups decided to combine Blackjack and telecommunications legislation in an new informational campaign online.  >>

SAN JOSE, February 26, 2007 – AT&T Senior Vice President Jim Ciconni said Tuesday that the telecommunications world is fundamentally different from 1968, when the FCC required AT&T to allow competing telephones onto its network.  >>

SAN JOSE, February 26, 2007 – Legislation to overhaul aspects of the patent system could take shape in as few as two or three weeks, said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and the Internet. >>

MEMPHIS, Tenn., January 13, 2007 — A new House subcommittee chaired by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, will turn its oversight to a range of government agencies, particularly the Federal Communications Commission, Kucinich announced here on Friday night. >>

WASHINGTON, January 10, 2007 — The United States Telecom Association and the Wireless Communications Association International on Monday filed court papers seeking to intervene in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Center for Public Integrity. >>

The Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to ease phone companies' entrance into the cable television market by preventing local authorities from "unreasonably refusing" franchises to new applicants. The 3-2 decision split along party lines.  >>

HONG KONG, December 8, 2006 — There are six big telecommunications carriers in China, and each of them sought to sell themselves and their companies' stories at the International Telecommunications Union Telecom World conference here. >>

HONG KONG, December 5, 2006 – The convergence of telecommunications and media is posing problem for communications regulators all over the world, and many of them swapped stories here about the best way to cope with rapid technological change. >>

HONG KONG, December 4, 2006 — Global regulators had a mixed message for the telecommunications industry here on Monday: Governments should ease restrictions on companies in the presence of competition — but otherwise tighten them. >>

Media scholar Ben Compaine and broadband expert Scott Wallsten discuss aspects of the Center for Public Integrity's "Well Connected" Project.  >>

The Consumer Electronics Association and a coalition of trade groups and nonprofits launched a public relations campaign Wednesday to warn the public against restrictions on digital technologies. >>

Google's Political Action Committee has just disbursed its first set of campaign contributions. Three of the five recipients have supported "net neutrality," one of Google's top policy priorities. >>

Entercom Communications will have to defend in court against the allegation that it had engaged in payola, or the practice of choosing songs for broadcast based on some form of payment that is concealed from the listening public. >>

Karl Bode of DSLReports.com recently interviewed Drew Clark, Senior Fellow and Project Manager of the Center for Public Integrity's Telecommunications and Media Project. Clark asked Bode if he could use his questions, and Clark's answers, as one of the first posts on the project's new blog. >>