Two corresponding events this week serve as strong indicators that the likelihood of AT&T's proposed $39 billion takeover of Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile is looking grim. First, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an order calling for an administrative hearing early this week.
FCC
FCC Votes Unanimously to Overhaul Universal Service Fund, Shifts Focus to Broadband Technologies
The FCC unanimously voted to completely overhaul the Universal Service Fund (“USF”) last Thursday, in a move that marks a historic change in policy for the Commission. Part of a telephone subsidy regime that stretches back to 1934, the USF was established in 1997 to help expand telephone service into rural areas. The funds from the program came from what amounted to a tax on telephone service, with the fund capped at $4.5 billion a year.
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Net Neutrality: Enabling Internet Openess or a Government Power Grab?
Network Neutrality has long been a hot topic for policy wonks and for immediately affected parties such as service providers. Now, the debate over network neutrality has come to the United States Congress. Bills have been introduced in both houses that would effectively deregulate the Internet—the antithesis of network neutrality.
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