The Goal of the Corporate State (the U.S. Government and Its Corporate Allies) Is to Have Total Control of Everything

Government Lets Google Buy Travel Software Company

April 8, 2011

AP – Google Inc. could receive government clearance as early as Friday to purchase airline fare tracker ITA Software in a $700 million deal that could make the search leader the hub of online travel, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Although talks are ongoing and could still fall apart, Google appears close to a deal with the Justice Department on an agreement that would let it buy ITA. Google must accept government conditions to protect other companies in the travel industry, the person said. The person was not authorized to discuss the review and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The government review of the deal has been seen as a test of how aggressively U.S. antitrust regulators intend to police Google as the company uses the wealth and influence gained from its dominance in Internet search to expand into other markets.

The acquisition would give Google control over software that powers the reservation systems of most major U.S. airlines and many popular online fare-comparison services, including Kayak, TripAdvisor and Hotwire.

Google has said it wants to use ITA to improve its search results for travel — giving consumers more choices and better ways to search for plane tickets. That would enable the company to command higher ad rates from airlines, hotels, rental car agencies and other leisure services.

Rivals fear that Google could use ITA to build its own online travel service and then use its control over Internet search to steer consumers to that service while burying competing sites further down in its search rankings. The person said Justice Department officials might subject Google to government oversight to ensure that the company does not favor its own travel products and services in its search results.

Such a condition would go to the heart of broader antitrust concerns surrounding Google as it enters new markets. The company's Internet search results already highlight some of its own services, including mapping, video and finance. The European Commission and the Texas attorney general are currently looking into whether Google manipulates search results to extend its monopoly into other online businesses.

Companies that rely on ITA also fear that Google could deny them access to the software, particularly as it introduces upgrades. Google so far has only promised to honor all of ITA's current contracts, which expire over the next few years. They also worry that Google could use its control over ITA to get access to their proprietary technology.

Justice Department officials are therefore considering conditions that would require Google to license ITA software to rivals and prohibit it from gaining access to other companies' technology, the person said.

News that an agreement was close was reported earlier by The Washington Post.

In an unrelated case, Google last week agreed to adopt a comprehensive privacy program to settle federal charges that it deceived users and violated its own privacy policy when it launched a social networking service called Buzz last year. The settlement mandates independent audits to oversee and verify Google's privacy program every other year for the next 20 years.

FCC Adopts Rules to Drive Wireless Competition

April 8, 2011

AP – Federal regulators adopted rules Thursday to drive more competition in wireless broadband as more people access the Internet using iPhones and other popular mobile devices.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to require big wireless carriers to open their data networks to smaller regional operators in places where they don't have their own systems. The large carriers have to offer network access at reasonable prices, and the FCC would resolve any disputes.

The so-called "data roaming" rules are a response to consolidation in an industry dominated by two nationwide carriers, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless. And they come just weeks after AT&T, the nation's second-largest wireless company, announced plans to buy T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest, in a $39 billion cash-and-stock deal.

Existing voice roaming rules already allow regional competitors to use the big carriers' networks to handle phone calls outside their own service territories. That enables Leap Wireless, for instance, to offer nationwide calling service. It pays other carriers for access to their systems when customers make calls outside Leap's service area.

But smaller wireless providers say they need to be able to be able to do that with data, too, as subscribers increasingly use smartphones not just to make phone calls but to send pictures, watch online video and access bandwidth-hungry mobile applications.

"Consumers ... expect to use their mobile phones throughout the nation for voice calls or data — like email or mobile apps," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat.

Parul Desai, policy counsel for the consumer watchdog group Consumers Union, said the new rules should help lower prices by giving consumers more choices for nationwide data services.

Steven Berry, president and chief executive of the Rural Cellular Association, added that the rules should make it easier for rural carriers to grow by ensuring that they can get the nationwide data roaming agreements they need to attract customers and funding for their networks.

"In this day and age, consumer expectations are that their devices work anytime, anyplace, anywhere," Berry said. "What consumer would buy a phone that only works in one small regional area?"

The FCC's three Democrats voted to adopt the data-roaming rules over the opposition of the agency's two Republicans. Republican Robert McDowell said he believes the agency lacks the legal authority to impose such requirements on the wireless industry.

AT&T and Verizon warned that they will have less incentive to invest in their high-speed wireless networks if they have to share them with competitors at regulated rates. In a statement, Verizon said the rules represent "a new level of unwarranted government intervention."

But Sprint Nextel Corp., the nation's third largest wireless carrier, and Leap Wireless, parent of the smaller Cricket phone service, welcomed the rules.

President Obama Pitches $18 Billion Wireless Broadband Plan

February 10, 2011

Washington Post — In this remote snow-swept college town rejuvenated in parts by Internet commerce, President Obama on Thursday outlined a plan to create similar economic stories through the expansion of super-fast wireless Internet connections.

Speaking at Northern Michigan University, Obama unveiled an ambitious blueprint to use $18 billion in federal funds to get 98 percent of the nation connected to the Internet on smartphones and tablet computers in five years.

To get there, the federal government will try to bring more radiowaves into the hands of wireless carriers to bolster the nation’s networks and prevent a jam of Internet traffic. He said he hoped to auction airwaves currently in the hands of television stations and government agencies to raise about $27.8 billion.

And with the money raised, the government would fund new rural 4G wireless networks and a mobile communications system for fire, policy and emergency responders. The remaining funds raised — about $10 billion — would go toward lowering the federal deficit over the next decade.

First outlined in his State of the Union speech, the plan is part of a push to reshape the nation’s infrastructure of deteriorating roadways and manufacturing plants into one with high-speed railways and high-speed Internet networks the president said are essential to compete globally in years ahead.

“To attract the best jobs and newest industries, we’ve got to out-innovate, out-educate, out-build and out-hustle the rest of the world," Obama said in his speech.

The plan is ambitious and complicated and relies heavily on the participation of cautious television broadcasters who are loath to easily give up their greatest asset — spectrum, experts say.

Specifically, $10.7 billion would go toward building an interoperable public safety network so first responders can communicate, send video files and e-mails during disasters and national security threats.

The administration also plans a one-time allotment of $5 billion from a federal phone subsidy to be used for wireless broadband expansion in rural areas. About $3 billion would go to a government research and development program for ways to use mobile Internet access for emerging technologies and applications in health, education and energy.

Its estimates don't include how much money it would return to broadcasters who give up airwaves in voluntary "incentive auctions." Those television broadcasters will get a cut of the proceeds, the administration has promised though it hasn't offered more details.

But broadcasters want more guarantees auctions will be voluntary and they are searching for details on how much they would receive from the auctions. Those details, however, are crucial for broadcasters, said Gordon Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters.

"We aren't against the plan but want to make sure this is truly voluntary, and we want to hold harmless those who don't want to participate," Smith said.

They are sitting on what is considered beachfront spectrum that is ideal for powerful Internet connections from a flood of Droids, iPhones and Xoom tablets hitting the market.

"It is not at all clear that incentive auctions will take place," Gigi Sohn, president of the public interest group Public Knowledge, said in a statement. She praised the federal attention to mobile broadband technology but said, "even under circumstances of familiar auction procedures, estimates of revenue can vary greatly from what is actually achieved."

Some lawmakers point to a questionable track record for federal programs to expand broadband connections.

As Obama toured Marquette’s Getz’s Clothiers, a retailer that has expanded its business on the Web thanks to broadband Internet for Marquette's population of 20,000, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on oversight of recent funding for broadband programs.

More than $7 billion in stimulus funds have been distributed to broadband grants in rural areas and lawmakers grilled recipients and government officials over economic gains from those grants.

“Before we target any more of our scarce taxpayer dollars for broadband, it is critical to examine whether the money already being spent is having an impact, as well as how we can minimize waste, fraud and abuse,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the energy and commerce committee.

Because the funds for new mobile broadband networks would come from auctions and not from the U.S. Treasury, it "has a better-than-even chance of happening," Paul Gallant, an analyst at investment firm MF Global said.

The White House said the funds won’t come out of taxpayer pockets, pointing to its expectations of auction proceeds.

Obama chose to visit Marquette because of the town's success in attracting commercial partners such as Intel to build a mobile broadband network based on WiMax technology on the university campus. Northern Michigan University partnered with towns nearby to expand cell towers so that elementary schools, police and residents could also access wireless networks fast enough to access streaming videos without a wireline connection.

"If you can do this in the snowy wilderness of the Upper Peninsula, we can do this all across America," Obama said.

FCC Grants LightSquared Permission to Offer Wholesale Broadband Satellite to a Wide Variety of Mobile Broadband Partners

April 4, 2011

Newt Stuff Blog - ...In late January, the FCC granted the company permission to offer wholesale broadband via its satellite and base station networks to a wide variety of mobile broadband partners. The move opens the prospect of new, innovative 4G services across the country, especially under-served areas. In fact, the company has just announced a partnership with Open Range Communications to roll out 4G LTE to rural regions.

But now this.

"LightSquared will not be permitted to move forward with service under the waiver until potential interference issues are addressed," the FCC's Robert Kenny told Ars on Thursday. "The process followed in addressing those issues will include the ongoing input of our federal partners, the GPS community and industry."

LightSquared Unleashed to Sell Wholesale 4G Mobile Broadband

January 26, 2011

Ars Technica - A new contender in the communications world has received the green light to sell mobile high-speed Internet on a wholesale basis. On Wednesday the Federal Communications Commission granted LightSquared permission to open its satellite and base station networks to a wide variety of mobile broadband partners. The move introduces the prospect of new, innovative 4G services across the country, among them under-served rural areas.

LightSquared calls the application grant the "essential building block for our network as we build out to meet the rigorous construction timetable that the Commission has made a condition of our authorization."

Indeed, the company has signed on to a rollout schedule of its Long Term Evolution terrestrial service that will offer coverage to at least 100 million Americans by December 31, 2012, another 45 million by December 31, 2013, and 260 million all told by December 31, 2015.

Strings attached

LightSquared is the creature of mega-investor Philip Falcone, who saw gold in the company's predecessor, SkyTerra Communications. Since 1996 the latter has operated two geostationary satellites that blanket much of the western hemisphere with voice and low-speed data coverage—one licensed in the US and the other in Canada.

Satellite communications are much more expensive than terrestrial mobile. So with the FCC's blessing, Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners investment group acquired SkyTerra, and brought in Nokia Siemen to design the LightSquared network, install equipment, and manage the operation, which will consist of about 40,000 cellular base stations covering 92 percent of the country.

Suddenly SkyTerra was transformed into a competitive player in the mobile broadband landscape, able to offer "dual mode" services (satellite and base station broadband).

The FCC attached some interesting conditions to the acquisition. Among them, Harbinger promised that SkyTerra would not enter into a deal to make its 1525 to 1660.5 MHz band spectrum available to any entity that happens to be "the largest or second largest wireless provider" in the US, without receiving prior Commission approval.

Those unnamed providers would be AT&T and Verizon, who now rake in over 60 percent of mobile wireless sector revenue, according the FCC's latest mobile competition report.

On your way, connected

So this new venture is poised to offer wholesale mobile broadband to a host of players who could operate quite independently of the big telcos. The LightSquared idea is to partner with entities that want to market their own products complete with a network to connect the devices.

"The game designer can now market his game along with the bandwidth to play it," the company's YouTube video explains. "Hospitals can create their own wireless networks. Manufacturers can sell their laptops already hooked up to high speed Internet. National mass retailers can send you on your way already connected."

There is still one more hurdle. LightSquared will have to ensure that its services don't interfere with GPS systems by organizing a "working group" with various federal agencies "to fully study the potential for overload interference to GPS devices and to identify any measures necessary to prevent harmful interference to GPS."

What is LightSquared?

LightSquared is a new nationwide 4G-LTE open wireless broadband network that will use a unique combination of satellite and terrestrial technology to revolutionize wireless communications in the United States. As the country’s first wholesale-only wireless broadband network, LightSquared will provide broadband wireless capacity to a diverse group of partners, including retailers; wireline and wireless communication service providers; cable operators; device manufacturers; web players; content providers; and many others.

LightSquared will deploy its wireless broadband network using LTE, the most widely adopted 4G standard in the world. Its LTE network will be combined with one of the largest commercial satellites ever launched, to provide coverage of the entire United States. This integrated LTE-satellite network is a world first. The LightSquared network has the capacity to support the explosive demand generated by new consumer devices and mobile applications.

By 2015, LightSquared expects to cover at least 92 percent of people in the U.S. with its wireless broadband network; in addition, from commercial launch it will offer the entire nation coverage through its satellite.

Through its wholesale-only business model, those without their own wireless network or who have limited geographic coverage or spectrum can develop and sell their own products using the LightSquared network—at a competitive price and without retail competition from LightSquared.

See: Nationwide Mobile Phone Payments By 2013 Will Lead to a Cashless Society
See: Electronic Health Records for Every Person in the United States by 2014