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Comcast has teamed up with Clearwire to offer one of the first 4G wireless data networks. Comcast High-Speed 2go will go live today in Portland and with offerings in Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia planned by the end of the year. This system is WiMax-based and features download speeds approaching 4 Mbps, that’s about four times faster than current 3G data networks. When Verizon and AT&T get in the game with their LTE-based 4G networks, this is really going to get interesting.
Amazon is pulling the plug on their associates program in Rhode Island just a week after killing the program in North Carolina. The reason being that Amazon is unhappy about pending sales tax legislation in states. Sources say California may be next.
Julius Genachowski, was sworn in as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Monday. The new FCC will be dominated by Democrats who will focus on empowering consumers and deploying nationwide high-speed Internet access. The FCC regulates telephone and cable companies, oversees radio and television and manages the public airwaves, including wireless data networks.
The Supreme Court has decided not to hear the case between TV studios and Cablevision over networked DVR service. While studios, including Paramount, Disney, NBC and CBS, believed a remote storage DVR would infringe on copyright law, the Supreme Court decided to back a District Court ruling which found that networked DVR did not violate copyright law. The decision is a big win for Cablevision, who will begin launching remote-storage DVR service later this summer.
MSNBC will finally broadcast in high definition. While MSNBC HD debuted yesterday on Cablevision, it will take the network at least two months to get the high definition broadcast to most markets. MSNBC President Phil Griffin noted that “If you want to be competitive in this game, it’s the price of entry.”