Like a gaggle of schoolgirls, Congress traded stories about how they too were annoyed by people using their phones before and after takeoff on flights. Well, I never! One House member relayed the story of how his delicate sensibilities were stomped all over by some woman who talked about her sex life on the phone, shortly to be one-upped by another congressman saying that his wife overheard someone receiving a "Dear John" call before takeoff. Good sir! After the jab-fest portion of this sleepover was concluded, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved, via voice vote, a bill that would make the current FCC ban on in-flight calling permanent. And then one of their dads took them out for ice cream. Best night ever. [Yahoo]

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With all the advances in technology we've had over the last couple of decades, you'd think that something as simple as changing your land line number into a cellular one would take hours at most. At least Congress does,... Read More »

Yesterday on Capitol Hill, two Democratic representatives introduced a House bill that would require broadband ISPs to "interconnect with the facilities of other network providers on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis." It also requires them to treat all content,... Read More »

A California congresswoman has proposed yet another spectrum auction—the 2,155MHz to 2,180MHz range—with some hefty public-service requirements:
• Within two years of receiving the licence, launch an "always-on" broadband with at least 200Kbps downloads
• Service is to be free of subscription, airtime and other usage fees
• "A technology protection measure" that would keep kids from the porn
• Publication of specs and standards, royalty free, so that others can develop for the network
Let me get this straight: You want some well-heeled for-profit corporation to pay potentially billions for the privilege of hastily launching a network that it can't charge money for, and let competitors provide devices for it, again for no extra money? I don't think so. I'm not pro-corporation, so much as I am pro-reality.

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Europe may be ok with passengers making in-flight calls on their mobile phones, but at least a few members of Congress have the foresight to see how this situation could become problematic in the US. A new bill has been introduced that promises to ban mobile phone calls on US flights, but not text messaging and web surfing. The bill has yet to be passed, but the question is: Do you support a ban?

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