It is an article of faith among telecom policy wonks (including RoadMAP), that the information technologies have unleashed what is likely to be an era of growth fueled by the Internet and related developments. Not true, says Tyler Cowan of George Mason University. He suggests that the promise of innovation-fueled growth is yet [...]

By Brent Lang, The Wrap
The Federal Communications Commission’s attempts to establish guidelines aimed at preserving a free and open internet hit a serious bump in the road on Thursday.
Verizon has filed an appeal in the United States Court of Appeals that seeks to overturn the net neutrality guidelines set in place last December. A year [...]

Regulars know that RoadMAP thinks the dominance of traditional TV is likely to continue for some time to come. Here’s a “forecast” from the folks at Deloitte, who think the familar prime time grid has some life left in it, and that the 30 second commercial will remain the major force drawing advertising dollars [...]

By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
Broadband provider Verizon Communications has filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s authority to enforce net neutrality rules.
Verizon filed the lawsuit Thursday in Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the company said. The FCC voted Dec. 21 to prohibit broadband providers from selectively blocking [...]

January 20, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kamilla Kovacs
202.454.5685
press@mediaaccess.org
WASHINGTON – Verizon has filed an “appeal” challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s December 21 Order establishing network neutrality rules. The company argues that the agency does not have authority set by Congress to create those rules, and assumes that the Order is a “modification” of its FCC licenses. License [...]

One of the favorite tactics in FCC Land is to argue that “If you are going to regulate me, then you have to regulate them.” Thus, in the network neutrality wars, phone and cable companies have argued that search engines (or at least Google) should be regulated. Herewith, a debunking.
Regulating Google’s Results? Law [...]

Kenneth Corbin, Datamation
After more than a year spent selling a blockbuster media merger to financial analysts, a skeptical public interest sector and government regulators, Comcast has won approval from the federal government to complete its $30 billion takeover of NBC Universal.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission, which had been working closely [...]

By Brooks Boliek, Politico
Giving the green light to the Comcast-NBC Universal deal is stoking the growing fear among the creative community that the federal government isn’t doing enough to protect independent voices on the airwaves and the Internet.
Writers Guild of America-East executive director Lowell Peterson contends that the $30 billion deal [...]

Too many confusing articles about the FCC/DOJ approvals of the Comcast/NBC Universal deal? (Although there are some good things in the conditions which were attached, you can read MAP’s statement expressing disappointment here.) If you have only have time to read one article, read this one from the Washington Post’s “Faster Forward” blog.
Comcast [...]

By Joe Flint, Los Angeles Times
The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department have approved Comcast Corp.’s deal to take a majority stake in General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, the government actions needed to create a new media and entertainment behemoth that spans television, a Hollywood movie studio and the Internet.
Announced [...]