FCC kicks off computer donation program to help low-income people
A Federal Communications Commission-led initiative has launched a program that will allow U.S. organizations to donate used computers to low-income people.
"The costs of digital exclusion are rising," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski at a press briefing in Washington, referring to how low- income people suffer from not being connected to the Internet.
"Broadband is our central platform in the 21st century for economic growth, information and opportunity," Genachowski said.
The nonprofit organization Connect2Compete (C2C) will redistribute the computers to the poor so they can be used to access the Internet and develop basic digital literacy skills.
Genachowski pointed to the ways that low-income individuals miss opportunities by not being connected. Many jobs -- including the many engineering positions U.S. companies now have difficulty filling -- require computer savvy. Even finding a job requires a computer. "Job postings are almost exclusively online now," Genachowski said, noting that 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies do all of their job postings online. Read more...
FCC plans to nix wireless network that may jam GPS
Federal officials plan to kill a private company's plans to start a national high-speed wireless broadband network after concluding it would in some cases jam personal-navigation and other GPS devices.
The Federal Communications Commission said it will seek public comment as early as Tuesday on revoking LightSquared's permit after a federal agency that coordinates wireless signals, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, concluded that there's no way to mitigate potential interference. Read more...
FCC approves first white spaces database, device
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved the first database of unlicensed wireless spectrum that can be used by new so-called white spaces devices.
The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology on Thursdat also approved a device from KTS (Koos Technical Services) that can operate in the white spaces, which are unused bands in the area of spectrum used by television stations. The KTS device will operate in conjunction with the approved white spaces database, from Spectrum Bridge.
KTS makes a broadband transmitter device designed to operate in the white spaces. Read more...