Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. was slapped with a $227,200 fine from the Federal Communications Commission on Monday for allowing 911 service disruptions for more than two weeks across four West Virginia counties last year.
Sound engineers for films ranging from "The Godfather" to "The Silence of the Lambs" and vocals from Barbra Streisand to Lady Gaga are urging federal regulators to make room on the airwaves for multichannel audio technology.
Although the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction authority is frozen by a congressional impasse, that's no reason to stop the commission from issuing thousands of licenses to airwaves it has already sold in a completed auction, according to four former agency general counsels.
Scores of groups lobbied the Federal Communications Commission in March on issues ranging from the next-generation TV rollout to the Affordable Connectivity Program, "broken" universal service funding, the details of consumer broadband labels and more.
It will take the U.S. Department of Commerce roughly two years to finish an in-depth study of specific airwaves that can be more effectively used by the public and private sectors, a key official leading the effort said Tuesday.