It was supposed to be a moment of victory: the FCC had tracked down two people responsible for making tens of millions of robocalls in America, and is planning to fine them $82m and $37.5m respectively. "This is the Commission’s first major enforcement action against a company that apparently commandeered consumers’ phone …

If you were to pick a moment in which America's telecoms regulator disappeared down the rabbit hole at its monthly meeting, it would probably be when the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Ajit Pai provided a full "up is down" statement. "I salute Commissioner Carr for his leadership in developing this …

A plan to impose a federal price cap and one-size-fits-all model for the rollout of next-generation mobile networks has been met with fury by US cities. New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle and dozens of other cities have responded in anger to a public comment period on two …

Big cable companies have told the federal government that "now's not the time" to talk about US internet speeds; despite a new program that will pay them billions of dollars to expand broadband access across the country, and a new proposal that put even more money in their pockets. Yes, it is the annual farce that is the …

The latest effort by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to expand 5G networks across the United States is little more than a cash giveaway to large telcos and will grow, rather than close, the digital divide. That's the opinion of telco expert, author of the United States' National Broadband Plan, and a man credited …

The head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, has slammed a net neutrality bill approved by California earlier this month, calling it "radical, anti-consumer" and "illegal." Speaking at the right-wing think tank Heritage Policy Center in Portland, Maine, Pai painted California's effort as seeking " …

A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has confirmed what others have reported for years: that official data on internet access across the country greatly over estimates availability and competition. The report [PDF] is focused specifically on tribal lands – small semi-autonomous areas of the United States …

The US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that a phone service over the internet is no longer a phone service but an "information service" – freeing it from regulatory oversight. That means, in the eyes of the court, voice-over-IP (VoIP) is not considered a public utility, and thus it is not subject to price …

Analysis A deep dive into internet access availability in one US city has revealed – again – that competition for broadband is dreadful and far below what official figures claim. In a report [PDF] put together by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, investigators looked at real-world internet offerings within a 30-mile radius of …

Mozilla has filed its legal brief against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), accusing the telecoms regulator of abdicating its role, ignoring public comments and failing to understand how the internet actually works. The lawsuit is one of several ranged against the FCC for its controversial decision to tear up …

Net neutrality advocates were left furious on Thursday that there wasn't more fury directed at the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) at Congressional hearing despite, the fact he killed off net neutrality several months ago. "Democrats Ripped for Totally Failing to Grill FCC Chair Ajit Pai Over Net …

Analysis The debacle surrounding a false cyberattack on US federal regulator the FCC is heading to Congress, with politicians accusing its chairman of a "dereliction of duty." Four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter [PDF] to Ajit Pai in advance of a hearing this Thursday demanding to know what he knew …

Analysis If Americans want fast internet access, they need to tighten the screws on Big Cable, not give it yet more power. That is the conclusion – yet again – of another study into the the United States' broadband market, this time one lodged in opposition to a push by Big Cable lobbying group US Telecom to kill off a federal rule …

An internal investigation has laid waste to the FCC's claims that its net neutrality comments system was knocked offline by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The broadband watchdog's own inspector general will any day now release its findings into the outage, and confirm what many people had suspected all along: …

Analysis A report out today into internet access in the United States has concluded – yet again – that the majority of netizens have a hard choice between competition or broadband speed. Thus, you can either have a decent number of ISPs to choose from, or one or two really fast ones. The study – Profiles of Monopoly: Big Cable and …

Controversy over a proposed $4bn merger of Sinclair Broadcasting and Tribune Media in the US has blown up again – after a commissioner on America's media watchdog, the FCC, blasted President Trump's public backing of the deal. "This is not normal," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told CNN on Sunday in response to Trump's …

America's comms watchdog – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – stooped to a new low on Thursday when it made last-second changes to a new complaints procedure just minutes after it denied the changes were necessary. The regulator's July monthly meeting was overshadowed by reports and complaints that an effort to " …

A Californian man is accused of threatening the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai and his family, over the decision to rescind net neutrality rules in the US. Markara Man, 33, of Norwalk, just outside Los Angeles, was collared on Friday by the FBI for allegedly sending three threatening emails to Pai's …