– by Jason Llorenz, Esq. And Enrique Cortez
As the heat of summer, 2005 was sinking deeper over the Mississippi Delta, the after effects of Hurricane Katrina gave the world a clear and tragic understanding of the need for dependable and accessible communication. Among the many lessons Katrina taught us was that the lack of mobile communication could be an overwhelming barrier to emergency personnel in providing timely responses to life-threatening emergencies and crises.
AT&T announced today its plans to acquire T-Mobile USA in a $39 billion dollar deal that would bring true mobile 4G LTE to millions of T-Mobile customers or 95% of America through AT&T’s upgrades of the T-Mobile network. This expands AT&T’s operations – including AT&T’s commitments to expand as a union workforce. CWA has already come out in support of the deal, saying it will lead to faster and more widespread broadband.
March 3, 2011
The ongoing conversation about reform of the Universal Service Fund includes many proposals and evolving ideas for making the program more efficient and aligned with 21st Century goals. Recent activity and dialogue has focused on the USF’s Low Income programs, Lifeline and LinkUp. Earlier this week, former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official Blair Levin, who is widely credited for authoring the National Broadband Plan, spoke to the Joint Center on Political and Economic Studies disavowing a part of that plan, especially proposals for these low-income programs, as flawed.