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The U.S. Justice Department is holding up Verizon Wireless's $3.9 billion bid to buy wireless spectrum from a consortium of cable operators, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Federal Communications Commission, which also has to sign off on the deal, is ready to approve the deal, sources have said. Verizon announced in December that it planned to buy about 20 MHz of Advanced Wireless Services wireless spectrum from a group of cable companies that includes Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House.

The deal is the largest spectrum transfer the FCC has ever considered … Read more

Bring out the constitutional scholars: Verizon says the Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality rules violate the right to free speech.

In a nutshell, Verizon argues that the FCC has overstepped its authority with its Net neutrality rules, going so far as to argue that the rules are unconstitutional -- Verizon sees the transmission of data across its network as "speech." As if that's not enough, the carrier argues that the rules are "arbitrary and capricious." In other words, Verizon doesn't believe the rules are necessary given that there hasn't been a big … Read more

Comcast has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle a Federal Communications Commission probe into the cable giant's broadband marketing practices after its merger with NBC Universal.

The settlement came after an FCC investigation found that Comcast representatives were not adequately marketing its standalone broadband service, a violation of a condition for the carrier's merger with NBC Universal that required Comcast to "visibly offer and actively market" the standalone Internet service for three years.

"Today's action demonstrates that compliance with commission orders is not optional," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. &… Read more

Verizon has reached a deal with T-Mobile to do an an Advanced Wireless Services spectrum swap, a deal that promises to add much-needed LTE capabilities to T-Mobile's network.

The deal would be dependent on forthcoming Verizon spectrum purchases, currently being scrutinized by the FCC. But, if the deals with SpectrumCo, Cox, and Leap go through, T-Mobile will get its LTE groundwork.

For iPhone users, this deal is particularly interesting, especially if you've already been using Apple's smartphone on T-Mobile's existing HSPA+ network. T-Mobile already offers tremendous support for the iPhone on its network even though it … Read more

Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA are touting their spectrum swap deal announced Monday as a win-win for both companies. But concern over antitrust issues in Verizon's co-marketing deal with cable companies could threaten the outcome.

On Monday, Verizon Wireless announced a plan to swap Advanced Wireless Services spectrum with T-Mobile USA in a deal that will likely help Verizon win approval from regulators to complete its $3.9 billion acquisition of spectrum from cable operators. Regulators are likely to approve of the plan, since it alleviates concerns that Verizon will have too much spectrum in certain markets, and that … Read more

AT&T is looking to put some of its unused spectrum to work in a move that could reshuffle the wireless spectrum deck.

On Friday, the carrier filed a joint proposal to the Federal Communications Commission with satellite radio provider Sirius. In the filing, the two companies proposed a solution to some longstanding interference concerns between AT&T's unused WCS spectrum, which is in the 2.3 GHz band and Sirius's satellite radio service. As part of this new proposal, AT&T agreed to give up about 10MHz of this Wireless Communication Services or WCS … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission is planning to take a closer look at its standards for cell phone safety to see if the agency needs to revise the 15-year-old guidelines.

Later today, Chairman Julius Genachowski will circulate a notice of inquiry that will look at a series of questions surrounding whether the current standards need to be updated or whether the agency's testing practices should be altered, a source at the commission said. And the agency will also examine whether it needs to make improvements in how it communicates safety information to consumers.

The FCC hopes to get comments from … Read more

European network providers that want the United Nations to consider a new Internet tax targeting Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix today defended their proposal, which was leaked earlier this week.

The idea of requiring content providers to pay fees based on usage is an "innovative" change to the way the Internet currently works and will create a more "fair" environment "where operators' revenues will not be disconnected from the investment needs made necessary by the rapid growth of Internet traffic," the providers said in a statement (PDF).

Last night, CNET reported that the European … Read more

The United Nations is considering a new Internet tax targeting the largest Web content providers, including Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix, that could cripple their ability to reach users in developing nations.

The European proposal, offered for debate at a December meeting of a U.N. agency called the International Telecommunication Union, would amend an existing telecommunications treaty by imposing heavy costs on popular Web sites and their network providers for the privilege of serving non-U.S. users, according to newly leaked documents.

The documents (No. 1 No. 2) punctuate warnings that the Obama administration and Republican members of Congress … Read more