Some people who don’t use broadband think they’re not missing much. But for those whose homes, libraries, public safety networks and healthcare facilities will have broadband access because of the $1.8 billion the government awarded last week, it will make a huge difference. One of the larger of the 94 broadband projects funded last week – $28.8 million to Peoples Telephone Cooperative (PTC) in eastern Texas - will connect as many as 190 community institutions to broadband, benefitting as many as 241,000 people and 10,300 businesses, and creating an estimated 100 jobs. The grants and loans announced last week are only a portion of the $7 billion

Leapfrogging over federal regulators, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval to rules requiring retailers to post radiation exposure ratings for each handset model offered for sale, reports Rachel Gordon of the San Francisco Chronicle. There's a huge variation between the hundreds of models available, ranging from handsets like the

Will the Tribune Company get waivers from the Federal Communications Commission once the company leaves Chapter 11 bankruptcy? Lynne Marek of Crain's Chicago Business reports that a group of Chicago media advocacy organizations filed a petition with the FCC this week arguing that the agency should no longer let the Trib own two TV stations in one city. Advocacy groups have petitioned the FCC about the Trib for years.

A federal appeals court struck a blow for net neutrality yesterday, but, for now at least, the ruling shouldn't impact how we use the internet.

Verizon and Comcast are energetically lobbying to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from regulating broadband. The Washington Post's Cecilla Kang reports that the FCC is strongly considering whether to reclassify broadband internet service as "a common service carrier," which means that broadband service providers would be regulated in the same way the FCC polices telephone companies.

By Marci Greenstein National Institutes of Health chief, Dr. Frances Collins was talking up his agency’s partnership with the Food and Drug Administration on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show last week.  The move is intended to speed up the process for getting drugs from laboratories to the marketplace.  What’s surprising is that this collaboration hasn't happened sooner.  How often have we heard about patients desperate to get drugs that are successful in clinical trials but are moving at a snail’s pace through the FDA’s regulatory maze?

The Wall Street Journal's Amy Schatz has an interesting dispatch from a Federal Communications Commission workshop yesterday where media investors said the time is now for the FCC to loosen their restrictions on media consolidation. At issue, is whether to lift or modify the cross-ownership ban, which means that ...

The Wall Street Journal's Amy Schatz previews the Federal Communication Commission's review of Comcast's likely purchase of NBC from General Electric. There are fears about the cable behemoth turning NBC into a cable channel or messing with local affiliates. But the greater, long-term concern, I think, is that this ...

The Wall Street Journal's Amy Schatz reports that the Obama administration Federal Communications Commission has a different approach to broadband internet access than the George W. Bush FCC. While Bush wanted less regulation, the current five-member FCC panel wants more in order to expand internet access for all Americans. ...

Joelle Tessler of the Associated Press reports that the FCC is planning to analyze the wireless telephone industry, possibly with an eye towards improving service and limiting exploitative practices of users by the nation's mobile phone providers.