FCC chief questioning XM-Sirius deal: NYT
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Kevin J. Martin, the chairman of the  Federal Communications Commission, has privately questioned  recent congressional testimony by the architect of a proposed  merger of the nation's two satellite radio companies that  subscribers would both pay the same monthly rate and receive  significantly more programming, The New York Times reported.
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After weighing royalty requests of satellite and Web radio, Congress considers changing broadcast fees.
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Kevin J. Martin, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has privately questioned recent congressional testimony by the architect of a proposed merger of the nation's two satellite radio companies that subscribers would both pay the same monthly rate and receive significantly more programming, The New York Times reported.
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By Charles Babington, Washington Post Staff Writer  The price of satellite radio service has become a sensitive topic in the debate over whether the nation's two space-based radio companies should be allowed to merge, and lawmakers zeroed in on it yesterday.
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Opponents and supporters  of the proposed Sirius-XM deal, which would shrink the  satellite radio universe to one provider, laid their pros and  cons before the Federal Communications Commission on Monday.
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The two main satellite radio  providers, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.  and Sirius   are expected to announce a long-awaited merger on  Monday, according to the New York Post.
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News Corp&#39;s president and chief  operating officer said on Friday he expected to have  contentious negotiations with Apple over showing its television  programs on iTunes.
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By Paul Davidson  To win approval of their blockbuster merger, the nation's two satellite radio companies would accept government-mandated conditions guaranteeing consumers lower prices and more channels, the head of Sirius Satellite Radio told lawmakers Wednesday.
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The FCC is looking for consultation on whether it should change the rule that currently forbids Sirius and XM from merging, a necessary move if it is to approve the proposed deal.
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The head of the Federal  Communications Commission wants to require the winning bidder  in an upcoming auction of valuable wireless airwaves to make  them accessible to consumers using any device or software  application, an FCC source said on Tuesday.
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The two main satellite radio  providers, XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius are  expected to announce a long-awaited merger on Monday, according  to the New York Post.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. senators questioned Thursday whether members of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to enforce merger conditions that AT&T Inc. agreed to in its December acquisition of BellSouth Corp. Democratic members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee questioned why FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate issued a joint statement while approving the merger saying the FCC couldn't broadly enforce some of AT&T's concessions. "What I find difficult to understand is that ... you said that you do not intend to stand by the deal that was reached," said Senator Daniel Inouye, the committee chairman and a Hawaii Democrat. Martin and Tate, both Republicans, had protested a net neutrality condition, preventing AT&T from giving priority transmission speeds to its own or its partners' Web content for at least two years. The net neutrality conditions "very well may cause greater problems than the speculative problems they seek to address," Martin and Tate said in the statement Dec. 29. Martin on Thursday said he intends to hold AT&T to the net neutrality agreement, but he doesn't plan to impose those standards on other broadband carriers. "Since [AT&T] volunteered to do that, we would enforce that," he said. "That does not mean we were changing our policy." Martin also suggested another part of the agreement setting out wholesale rates for some data services may be unenforceable. "What is your legal authority as chairman ... to not enforce something you just did?" asked Senator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat. AT&T agreed to lower the wholesale special access prices for DS1, DS3, and Ethernet services available to some regional telecom carriers and large businesses, but not to large competitors. But the FCC's policy in the past has been that wholesale discounts should apply to all customers, Martin said. "That tariff actually has some components that I believe are illegal under the commission precedent," Martin said. "They can file [the proposed discount], but I'm not committing to approving something that would be in violation of our precedent. We don't allow for that kind of discrimination." But Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat who pushed for conditions on the AT&T merger, noted that the FCC adopted the AT&T merger conditions on a 4-0 vote. "It's hard for me to understand why we can't implement something we adopted unanimously," he said. Senators also urged the FCC to work on ways to get broadband service to rural, inner city and poor areas. The FCC on Wednesday issued a report saying the number of high-speed lines in the U.S. increased by 26 percent during the first half of 2006, from 51.2 million to 64.6 million lines in service. The number of high-speed lines grew by 21 percent in the second half of 2005. Senators also pointed to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's latest study saying the U.S. ranks 12th in broadband adoption rate among industrialized nations. Commissioner Michael Copps called on Congress and the FCC to develop a national broadband strategy. He called the U.S. broadband adoption rates "woeful." "I am really worried that we can go into the 21st century and have a bigger digital divide in this country ... than we had back in the days of plain, old telephone service in the 20th century," he said. "This just isn't feel-good liberal theory -- we're talking about the competitiveness of the United States of America."
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Democrats and others question the FCC chief's request to allow an official with a conflict of interest to break an expected tie vote.
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U.S. communications regulators on Friday took a step forward in reviewing Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s  proposed acquisition of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. .
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&quot;Magic can happen.&quot; Sirius Satellite Radio (nasdaq: SIRI - news - people ) may have signed Howard Stern and the men&#39;s NCAA basketball tournaments, but XM Satellite Radio (nasdaq: XMSR - news - people ) has its sights on your cell phone.
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Open access advocates say an FCC plan for new spectrum doesn't go far enough.
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FCC Chairman Michael Powell &quot;showed some discomfort&quot; on Tuesday when a caller on a newsradio show he was appearing on turned out to be Howard Stern.