Free Republic

As the FCC auctions off an unused spectrum of airwaves, the winner may be forced to provide free wireless internet for most of the country. No date or terms for the auction have been set, but the government's deal requires that free service on the 25 MHz spectrum reaches at least half the in five years and 95 percent within ten years. The agreement, proposed by FCC chairman Kevin Martin, also stipulates that the bidder must filter out obscene content for allowing the winner to use the remaining portion of the spectrum for commercial purposes. "We're hoping there will be...

Excerpt - Well, this should be interesting. Because of scheduling issues, Kevin Martin and Lowell McAdam will be interviewed at the same time. Will the two hit it off on issues of ‘Net neutrality, early termination fees, Open Access or none of the above? ~ snip ~ Pulling up a chart that showcases the lousy broadband situation in the states, Walt kicks the conversation off with a hardball question for Martin: “You’re the chairman of the FCC,” says Walt. “How did you allow this to happen?” Big applause. Martin tries to dodge a bit, suggesting that the chart shows penetration....

Hope you can listen in and opinions are welcome here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2008 STATEMENT BY FCC CHAIRMAN KEVIN J. MARTIN Washington, D.C. –FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin today announced the close of Auction 73 (the 700 MHz auction). The auction began on January 24, 2008, and closed today after 261 rounds of bidding. The FCC auction raised a record $19.592 billion and helped advance new open platform policies. Auction 73 Raised More Money Than Any Auction has Ever Raised The $19.592 billion in revenue raised in the 700 MHz auction is significantly more than raised in any past FCC auction. In comparison, the 2006 Advanced Wireless...

The speakers had just finished lamenting recent acts of vandalism at military recruiting centers and had opened the floor to questions at the National Press Club when peace activist Tighe Barry jumped up, took off his shirt and revealed the pink military tunic he was wearing underneath. "This is what I think of the Marine Corps!" he yelled. "The Marine Corps needs to be the peace corps!" Incensed, Kevin L. Martin rushed to the microphone. "Let me tell you something, dammit!" he hollered. "I'm a Navy veteran of seven years, and . . . you are a joke, sir! Please...

Anti-Photo ID Legislation Would Promote Election Fraud, Says Group For Release: November 5, 2007 Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org Washington, D.C. - Legislation introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) to prohibit photo ID requirements for voting in federal elections would promote election fraud, say members of the black leadership network Project 21. "Representative Ellison's proposal is fundamentally flawed and potentially harmful to the integrity of our democratic process," said Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie. "Why invite that which can only lead to unimaginable fraud and corruption?" Imposing existing Minnesota election law on a national scale, the...

A veteran who attended the Ann Coulter taping of "Hardball" confronts Chris Matthews off-camera. Video

LAS VEGAS -(Dow Jones)- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday suggested that he wants to force cable companies to carry multiple digital programs from broadcasters, stirring up an issue that is a long-standing source of tension. "One of the reasons why I think it was a real missed opportunity for the commission to have not addressed multicast carriage in such a way that it would have allowed broadcasters to produce multicast broadcasting in a digital era and having all of those signals carried by the cable companies is that would have provided for an increase in the...

Excerpt - AT&T Inc. is nearing the acquisition of BellSouth Corp. for roughly $65 billion, people familiar with the situation said Saturday evening. A deal could be announced as early as Monday, these people said. ~snip~

Cable Choice Now by L. Brent Bozell III Posted Feb 19, 2006 The "cable choice" initiative continues to gather momentum. Increasing numbers of public policy organizations, political leaders, and even telecommunications companies are endorsing the very simple concept that consumers should take and pay for only that which they want on cable television, rather than having to continue subsidizing programming they find offensive or just plain lousy. As to be expected, the cable industry is fighting back, with everything it's got. The problem is that it has very little, and is now reduced to argumentation that flirts with the bizarre....

President George W. Bush is expected to nominate telecommunications lawyer Robert McDowell to fill the third Republican seat on the five-member Federal Communications Commission according to a story from Reuters. This news is crucial to the future of telecommunications because McDowell serves as senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Comptel, a group representing companies that primarily compete against big telephone carriers like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications. It may not be common knowledge that AT&T was a powerful lobbying force against the incumbent telephone companies and the acquisition of the company by SBC has reduced the competitive...

WASHINGTON – Sexed-up, profanity-laced shows on cable and satellite TV should be for adult eyes only, and providers must do more to shield children or could find themselves facing indecency fines, the nation's top communications regulator says. "Parents need better and more tools to help them navigate the entertainment waters, particularly on cable and satellite TV," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told Congress on Tuesday. Martin suggested several options, including a "family-friendly" tier of channels that would offer shows suitable for kids, such as the programs shown on the Nickelodeon channel. He also said cable and satellite providers could...

Excerpt - Federal regulators are on the verge of suggesting that cable companies could best serve consumers by letting them subscribe to individual channels instead of offering only prepackaged bundles. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to announce today at a Senate forum on indecency that the FCC will soon reissue its review of cable industry "à la carte" pricing with a wholly different conclusion. While the original report concluded that consumers would pay more for individual channels, the new one concludes they could pay less. "This report will conclude that à la carte could be in the...

FCC Boss to Cable TV: Deal with Indecency By Bob Keefe The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 04/06/05 8:07 AM PT Acknowledging that he's new to the job as the nation's top communications industry regulator, Kevin Martin trod lightly on the topic of indecency, saying it was Congress' job to make new laws, not his. But he also made it clear he expects the cable business to do something on its own soon. The FCC's new chairman warned cable companies yesterday they need to do a better job of addressing growing concerns over television indecency if they want to avoid regulation from Congress....

WASHINGTON - President Bush has chosen Kevin Martin, a member of the Federal Communications Commission, to head the agency that has recently gained notoriety for clamping down on indecency in broadcasting. Martin, who has been an FCC commissioner since 2001, replaces Michael Powell as chairman. Powell, son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, had announced in January that he was leaving this month after four years in the top post. The White House was to officially announce Martin's appointment later Wednesday, said an FCC official who declined to be named ahead of the announcement. The FCC has taken on...

Michael Powell's decision Friday to step down as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is a blessed event. It paves the way for a successor who can bring consistency and stability to revive telecom policy -- and competition and lower prices to benefit consumers. Powell, 41, took over the FCC four years ago, pledging a free-market approach. Many key decisions, however, promoted the opposite. For example, after saying that he would end the double standard on indecency (which leaves cable and satellite networks largely free of government censorship), he instead slapped huge fines on radio and TV broadcasters and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - Shortly before becoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission nearly four years ago, Michael K. Powell said it was time to eliminate the double standard that allowed the government to subject broadcasters, unlike their competitors in cable and satellite television, to indecency and other speech regulations. At the time, Mr. Powell received a Freedom of Speech Award for advancing what broadcasters and civil liberties groups viewed as a courageously principled position. Now, he is being harshly criticized for significantly expanding the indecency rules. He blames a quest for higher ratings for the "increasing coarseness" of programming...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited rules governing competition in the local-telephone industry Thursday, over six months after initially approving the measure in a 3-2 vote. But the release signals less the end of a process than the beginning of litigation that has been promised from virtually every corner of the industry. Suits are likely from the Baby Bells, which were looking for more relief from obligations that they lease their networks at low cost to competitors like the local arms of AT&T Corp. and MCI, as well as competitors who will say that deregulation of...

The FCC Under Fire The commission's controversial loosening of media ownership rules meets steadily rising opposition Populist outrage is threatening to undo a controversial effort by the FCC to loosen restraints on media megaliths. In the Senate last week, seven Republicans joined 28 Democrats to schedule a rare "resolution of disapproval" to overturn new FCC rules that would let companies like News Corp. and Viacom expand their media holdings in local markets. Then in the House, defecting Republicans fueled a 40-to-25 committee vote to reverse part of the FCC's action. Now it appears that the chief architect of those...

Former Ku Klux Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd is angry at President Bush - not because he spent taxpayer dollars to pay a congratulatory visit to an aircraft carrier bearing the men and women who helped defeat Saddam Hussein. But instead, says one civil rights leader, Bryd's pique was provoked because the ship in question bore the name of America's Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. That's the contention from Kevin Martin, spokesman for the African-American Republican Leadership Counsel, who served during the Gulf War aboard the USS Lincoln's sister ship. "Senator Byrd has a long association with the Klan that sought to...

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Dominant U.S. local telephone companies such as BellSouth Corp. will likely invest further in high-speed networks despite a decision that they must continue to share their networks with rivals, Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell said on Wednesday. The FCC voted to keep rules that require the carriers to give rivals discounted access to their voice networks but lifted sharing requirements on fiber-optic networks in hopes of spurring further investment in high-speed networks and video-on-demand. Powell, who had favored reducing sharing requirements on most voice and data services offered by the carriers but was outvoted...

After months of noisy foreplay, Michael Powell has failed to produce. Today, one Republican and two Democrat members of the Federal Communications Commission forged a new working majority and thwarted their own chairman's plan to strip states of their power - and the four giant Bell companies of their telecom competitors. The FCC decision was important. It means that the process of deregulation, begun with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, supported by every conservative in the House and Senate, can continue. The Bells, the established regional monopolies in local service, have now entered the long-distance business in 70 percent...

Timing is everything, so one adage goes. And action speaks louder than words, says another. The conjunction of the SBC bid for Hughes' DirecTV satellite operation and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell decision to delay a vote on new telecommunications' rules from this Thursday to Feb. 20 may be mere coincidence. Nevertheless the timing provides commissioners an opportunity to mull over how their actions may affect the competitive landscape for decades to come. Washington is a twitter that Powell's decision to delay a vote from today to Feb. 20 results from a bi-partisan compromise proposal by a fellow...

FCC Vote Outside of Meeting Possible, but not Likely The FCC could implement new telephone regulations before its open meeting next Thursday if the five commissioners signed off on the order, but an FCC spokesman said today that is unlikely. "Theoretically items can be voted on without it happening at an open meeting but I don't think it will be the case for this item," the spokesman said. The federal regulator has postponed a meeting (originally scheduled for tomorrow) to vote on a proposal that will govern which parts of the local network the Bell operating companies are required...

Civil Rights Leader to Picket 'KKK' Byrd TributeA Washington, D.C.-based civil rights leader said Tuesday that he would "chain [himself] to the construction site" of a ceremonial office being built as a tribute to Ku Klux Klansman-turned-senator, Robert Byrd, D-W.V. "I will not stand idly by and allow the building of a fantasy office for 'a minister of hate' such as Robert Byrd," said Kevin Martin, political affairs director of the African-American Republican Leadership Council. "I am willing to chain myself to the construction site, run the risk of arrest and know I stood on principle rather than remain silent."...

   THURSDAY, January 9, 20039:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. EST / 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. PST... A DAY AT THE RACISTS The Lott Thing!The Byrd Thing!The Je$$e Jack$on Thing!The Sharpton Thing!The Profiling Thing!The Reparations Thing!The Hate Thing!The Thought Police Thing! It's time for theREPUDIATION THINGand we'll discuss it with B.O.N.D.'sJESSE LEE PETERSONand see if he can dissolve the grey areas of spinin the discussion of black and white.  ALSO...   Project21's Kevin Martin!! (aka FR's Trueblackman)  PLUS... Boneheaded Lie-beral QuotesCommie Rat Bastard of the WeekAnna's NEW Waste Of Ink Award All this (and possibly more)on the nextUnspun with AnnaZ CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE!!   Tune in....

Kevin Martin: Black Caucus Fears Senate's Ex-Klansman A Washington, D.C.-based civil rights leader said Wednesday that the Congressional Black Caucus fears the political clout of ex-Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, and that's why they haven't demanded his resignation for repeatedly using an ugly racial epithet last year. "The Congressional Black Caucus lives in fear of Robert Byrd," said Kevin Martin, head of African-American Republican Leadership Council, on Wednesday. "They've never condemned him on anything," he told radio host Sean Hannity. Martin contrasted the firestorm of protest that erupted this week over the comments of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott...