Telecom & Technology

Washington, DC -- Today, the Federal Communications Commission officially unveiled their highly anticipated National Broadband Plan recommendations.  The Plan combines a broad vision with targeted approaches to address competition, adoption, access, and digital literacy, but pushes most of the substantial decision-making to an as yet undefined future date.

The FCC launched its consumer broadband test on http://www.broadband.gov/ today. The site utilizes the measurement platform co-developed by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative and gives consumers a way to test the speed and other performance measurements of their broadband connections. 

Everyone knows someone who has experienced the 21st century's quintessential gotcha moment: the unexpected, budget-breaking mobile-phone bill. Most aren't as bad as the $22,000 bill a California man received from Verizon Wireless for his teenager's Internet usage, or the New York family whose iPhones racked up nearly $4,800 by automatically checking for e-mails on a Mediterranean cruise.

What do high-impact projects look like? What are the common goals against which success might be measured in the progressive media sector?
--FROM BEYOND THE ECHO CHAMBER

On behalf of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, we are pleased to submit these reply comments regarding the Commission’s Notice of Inquiry on Fostering Innovation and Investment in the Wireless Communications Market. As the Commission noted, the market for wireless broadband services has been evolving at an extraordinarily rapid pace and is delivering new and empowering technologies to American consumers. Most recently, this is reflected in an exploding consumer demand for mobile data with the increasing use and availability of smartphones and aircard modems.

So here we are, several weeks after text donations crossed from cutting edge to common place.

The Open Technology Initiative of the New America Foundation will host Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on February 24, 2010 at 11am. Chairman Genachowski will preview working recommendations in the National Broadband Plan for advancing U.S. mobile broadband leadership.

Please save the date for the second Future Tense Event from Slate magazine and the New America Foundation.

More details coming soon...

About the Future Tense Event Series

Slate and the New America Foundation recently announced a new partnership, focusing on emerging technologies and their transformative effects on society and public policy.  Click here for more information.

On February 26, Slate’s Chris Wilson, Colonel Jim Hikey, Scott Helfstein, and “Matthew Alexander” (a pseundonym) explored the surprisingly hi-tech hunt for Iraq's dictator in 2003, and ways such tools continue to change U.S. war-fighting. The panelists were introduced by New America President Steve Coll. The event was moderated by Peter Bergen, Co-Director of the Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative.

The New America Foundation and Slate magazine today announced a new partnership, focusing on emerging technologies and their transformative effects on society and public policy.

Central to the partnership is the "Future Tense" event series, which brings together issue experts and provocative thinkers from all disciplines to look beyond today's headlines.  Both Slate and New America will be complementing these discussions with original web content, and exploring new ways to continue the conversations online.