Active smartphone users better get used to an ugly buzzword: throttling. AT&T has begun slowing down the most voracious 5% of its data users. And while cell carriers may feel they have to push back against the bandwidth hogs, the customer response may be more than they bargained for.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed that the government auction off its portion of the wireless spectrum to private companies to boost access to high-speed Internet and cut the federal budget deficit.
In a move to help it target tablet computers, cell-phone-chip designer Qualcomm has reportedly offered $3.5 billion to buy Atheros Communications, which has developed chips that connect wireless computers to the Internet.
Lobbyists from some of the largest U.S. technology companies are meeting behind closed doors in Washington with telecom giants to discuss net neutrality, following the failed FCC talks and Google's bilateral deal with Verizon. No surprise, public interest groups weren't invited.
The two companies were on opposite sides of the net neutrality debate. So they initiated talks aimed at coming up with a compromise where some progress could be achieved in the face of FCC and congressional inaction. For Google, it's a lesson in growing up.