Mar/100
FCC will consider ‘free or very low cost wireless broadband’ service
Did you know there was a Digital Inclusion Summit going on? We already know the FCC isn’t best pleased about the fact 93 million Americans are making do without access to home broadband, and this latest event was an opportunity for it to dish some more info on its forthcoming National Broadband Plan. The major obstacles to broadband adoption identified by the FCC were noted as cost, computer illiteracy, and a sheer lack of awareness about the benefits the web offers (outside of cute kitties). The big Plan will be delivered to Congress a week from today, and its suggestions will include the creation of a Digital Literacy Corps, who’ll be performing missionary duties among the unenlightened, and the big whopper: a proposal to “consider use of spectrum for a free or very low cost wireless broadband service.” Yeah, if you can’t jump over the cost hurdle you might as well eviscerate it from existence. Quite naturally, such radical plans have been met with much grumbling opposition, and Business Week reports that it may be years before the full reforms are implemented … if at all.
FCC will consider ‘free or very low cost wireless broadband’ service originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Samsung announces US availability, pricing for R1, R0 PMPs
Samsung announces US availability, pricing for R1, R0 PMPs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Spring Design’s Alex e-reader hits the FCC
Continue reading Spring Design’s Alex e-reader hits the FCC
Spring Design’s Alex e-reader hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Motorola’s Android-powered iDEN device to be called i1?
Alright, pardon our conjecture here, but we think we’re on to something. A Motorola just flew through FCC certification with ID IHDP56KV1 and model name “i1″ featuring iDEN plus Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi — in other words, this’ll almost certainly be coming to Sprint Direct Connect. Remember that rumored Opus One with Android for iDEN? Yeah, well, “i1″ is a pretty notable, stand-out model name if you ask us — and it’s not every day that you see an iDEN device with WiFi, suggesting this’ll be a smartphone. Do a little hand-waving and liberal dot-connecting and you have a reasonable assumption that the Opus One will be coming to market as the i1 — and with FCC certification under their belt, Moto might introduce it sooner rather than later. CTIA later this month, perhaps?
Motorola’s Android-powered iDEN device to be called i1? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar/100
Microring transmissions are sure to resonate with people who hate wires
You’ve probably seen sketches like the one above promising you complete cable independence since what, 1996? We’re not about to tell you this is the one technology that finally delivers on that utopian dream, but it’s surely one of the zanier attempts at it. By converting “ultra fast laser pulses” into radio frequency waves, the researchers claim they’ve overcome a significant hurdle to making wireless communications ubiquitous — signal interference. The rapid (each laser burst lasts a mere 100 femtoseconds), pulsing nature of their approach purportedly makes their signal extremely robust, while intended operation at around 60GHz means their microring transmitters (diagram after the break) will be able to operate within spectrum space that does not require a license — neither from the FCC nor internationally. Applications for the microrings would include things like HDTV broadcasts and piping data into vehicles, although we won’t be seeing anything happening on the commercial front for at least another five years. Typical. If you just can’t wait that long, a few Japanese companies you may have heard of are preparing their own 60GHz wireless devices for the second half of this year.
Continue reading Microring transmissions are sure to resonate with people who hate wires
Microring transmissions are sure to resonate with people who hate wires originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Nexus One coming to Verizon March 23rd and Vodafone in April?

What better way to start your Saturday afternoon than with a pair of Nexus One release rumors. Without further ado, first up comes whispers care of Neowin that the recently-FCC’d CDMA device is launching on Verizon’s network March 23rd, perfect timing for the beginning of CTIA. And while that fits pretty neatly into that initial “Spring 2010″ launch window, there’s really no way for us to corroborate at this point other than just taking their word for it. Moving across the pond, sources from both Google and Vodafone reportedly send word to UK’s Telegraph that Voda’s getting its own model in April — obviously a far cry from the “few short weeks” we heard back in April (as that deadline’s definitely come and gone) but still not too far off. No word on price but last we heard it was rumored at around €150. You can wait diligently, can’t ya?
Nexus One coming to Verizon March 23rd and Vodafone in April? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Nexus One coming to Verizon March 23rd?
What better way to start your Saturday afternoon than with another Nexus One release rumor. Without further ado, today we’ve got whispers care of Neowin that the recently-FCC’d CDMA device is launching on Verizon’s network March 23rd, perfect timing for the beginning of CTIA. And while that fits pretty neatly into that initial “Spring 2010″ launch window, there’s really no way for us to corroborate at this point other than just taking their word for it. You can wait diligently, can’t ya?
Nexus One coming to Verizon March 23rd? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Nexus One hits FCC again, this time in CDMA trim
Remember how we figured out that an AT&T 3G-equipped Nexus One had stumbled its way into FCC certification not long ago? Using the same logic — mainly label shape and model number — we can safely say that this latest version to get approval is the dual-band CDMA variant that’s almost certainly destined for Verizon within the next few months. There’s not terribly much to see in the filing, but hey, take solace in knowing they’ve cleared this crucial bureaucratic hurdle (of course, Verizon’s infamous internal testing is another bureaucratic hurdle altogether).
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nexus One hits FCC again, this time in CDMA trim originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Qisda QD060B00 e-reader hits the FCC
Qisda QD060B00 e-reader hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
White space ‘Smart City’ network goes up in Wilmington, North Carolina
White space internet just took another step on its long, vaporous journey: in addition to the 916-person trial in tiny Claudville, Virginia kicked off last year, Spectrum Bridge just launched its first large-scale “Smart City” network in Wilmington, North Carolina. If you’ll recall, white spaces are the bits of spectrum in between TV frequencies, and a whole host of heavy hitters including Microsoft and Google pushed the FCC to open them up for data usage after years of lobbying and comically failed tests. Wilmington was selected for the big trial since it was the first community to switch completely to DTV broadcasting, and the city’s using the new network for a variety of infrastructure tasks, including traffic camera monitoring, free WiFi in city parks, and remote wetlands monitoring stations. There’s also more to come, including medical uses and more broadband for schools as time goes on. We’re assuming NAB is totally SulkyFace5000 right now, but we’ve got to hand it to the White Spaces Coalition — after all that talk, they’ve finally gotten up and running in a larger community. Anyone in Wilmington care to chime in and tell us how it’s working?
White space ‘Smart City’ network goes up in Wilmington, North Carolina originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Sling Monitor 150 hits the FCC
We caught our first glimpses of the Sling Monitor 150 placeshifting display at CES 2009, but it only got an official launch at this year’s show, and now it looks like it’s getting even closer to store shelves with an appearance at the FCC for some RF testing action. We’ve always been intrigued by the 15-inch 720p display that can stream HD over WiFi, but until a cable or satellite operator actually deploys some of those hot SlingLoaded set-top boxes this thing isn’t going to do anyone too much good.
Sling Monitor 150 hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
FCC’s Genachowski previews broadband plan, demands half gigahertz of spectrum for the task
Time’s running out for the FCC to present its National Broadband Plan to Congress next month, a set of sweeping regulatory changes geared at making broadband widely and readily available to every nook and cranny of the country — and as the day of reckoning draws near, chairman Julius Genachowski is starting to talk specifics about how the Plan’s going to look. At a speech hosted by the think tank New America Foundation today, Genachowski revealed a few key initiatives geared overall to reach the goal of reclaiming a whopping 500MHz of spectrum to apply toward wireless broadband data over the coming decade. A big part of that puzzle will be something called the Mobile Future Auction where existing spectrum owners (ahem, TV broadcasters) could be given the opportunity to voluntarily — emphasis on “voluntarily” — sell off their airwaves in exchange for a portion of the auction proceeds; it’s claimed that as much as $50 billion in value could be “unlocked” by more efficiently using some of this spectrum, where only about half is currently being used in even the most populous markets. They’ll also be making some moves to encourage more innovation with unlicensed spectrum — an area that has already brought about paradigm-shifting technologies like WiFi and Bluetooth at 2.4GHz — and proposing the launch of a Mobility Fund as part of the Universal Service Fund’s reboot to help build out infrastructure in underserved areas. It all sounds ambitious, yes — but if some of the claims the FCC and others are making about projected wireless data utilization over the next few years are even close to true, drastic action appears to be well-justified.
FCC’s Genachowski previews broadband plan, demands half gigahertz of spectrum for the task originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Editorial: the American phone subsidy model is a RAZR way of thinking in an iPhone world
The concept is simple enough — pay more, get more. So it has gone (historically, anyway) with phone subsidies in this part of the world, a system that has served us admirably for well over a decade. It made sense, and although it was never spelled out at the customer service counter quite as clearly as any of us would’ve liked, it was fairly straightforward to understand: you bought a phone on a multi-dimensional sliding scale of attractiveness, functionality, and novelty. By and large, there was a pricing scale that matched up with it one-to-one. You understood that if you wanted a color external display, a megapixel camera, or MP3 playback, you’d pay a few more dollars, and you also understood that you could knock a couple hundred dollars off of that number by signing up to a two-year contract. In exchange for a guaranteed revenue stream, your carrier’s willing to throw you a few bucks off a handset — a square deal, all things considered. So why’s the FCC in a tizzy, and how can we make it better?
Editorial: the American phone subsidy model is a RAZR way of thinking in an iPhone world originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Google all respond to FCC’s ETF inquiry
All of the players roped into the FCC’s early termination fee inquiry — T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and Google — have met the Fed’s February 23 deadline for responding, and needless to say, you could destroy a small forest with the amount of paperwork that’s been sent back to Washington. The majority of the inquiry focused on carriers’ ETF pricing structure and whether there are different ETFs involved based on the device a customer chooses, and the subtleties in the differences between answers from different carriers are pretty fascinating.
T-Mobile seems resolute that a single $200 ETF is the way to go and emphasizes that its customers can avoid the fee altogether by going with an Even More Plus plan, while Sprint says that it “continue[s] to evaluate the market” with regard to a multiple ETF setup. Google, meanwhile, is quick to note that it’s just dropped its $350 Equipment Recovery Fee down to $150, though that amount still effectively represents the only device in T-Mobile’s subsidized lineup that commands a grand total ETF greater than $200 upon cancellation — but it gets even better later on when they get snippy for being lumped in with carriers on the inquiry and remind the FCC that the ERF reduction had been in the planning stages prior to the inquiry being issued. At any rate, they note that the ERF isn’t intended as a revenue stream — rather, it’s a way to recoup the losses Google incurs when T-Mobile asks for its commission back if a customer cancels within 120 days (as you might imagine, T-Mobile conveniently fails to mention this point in its own reply).
Verizon — which effectively triggered this whole mess by introducing its two-tier ETF — basically echoes much of what it said in its last response, a surprising move considering the Commission’s general displeasure with it, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of reaction it garners this time around. AT&T takes perhaps the most pragmatic approach through most of its response, answering the FCC’s questions very matter-of-factly, but goes into a great deal of depth rationalizing early termination fees at the tail end and takes the opportunity to remind everyone that they’ve offered both commitment-free month-to-month and prepaid service for many years.
Something tells us this isn’t the last we’ve heard on the subject, but for the time being, check out everyone’s responses in the galleries below (more after the break).
[Thanks, Dan P.]
Continue reading Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Google all respond to FCC’s ETF inquiry
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Google all respond to FCC’s ETF inquiry originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
LG debuts T280 ultralight, X140, X200 netbooks
LG debuts T280 ultralight, X140, X200 netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
HTC Legend clears the FCC
HTC Legend clears the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Feb/100
Sony slips two new PS3 Slim models through the FCC
Our favorite pseudonym company out there, Sand Dollar Enterprise, is back with a pair of new filings with the FCC pointing to a refresh of the PlayStation 3 Slim hardware. We don’t know specifically what has been overhauled inside, though the two new SKUs, CECH-2101A and CECH-2101B, mimic the coding scheme of the current hardware, which is CECH-2001A and B. The alphabetical differentiation relates to different hard drive sizes inside, with 120GB and 250GB options available today and likely to be replicated in the forthcoming consoles. Looking at the FCC’s radio testing, we find the same 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR transceivers as are in the current Slim, leading us to believe the changes are elsewhere or, as PS3 News suggests, maybe Sony has just found new manufacturers for the same chips and had to run them through the validation committee again. It’s just that the latter is far less exciting than the idea of Sony starting up an upgrades war with some tasty springtime spec bump.
Sony slips two new PS3 Slim models through the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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