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| | | November 16, 2003
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Sunday, November 16, 2003 |
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A hubbub over VoIP, number porting in the U.S.
The U.S. communications market is abuzz as the country's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is pursuing new rules on number porting. Starting November 24, telecommunications operators will be forced to let customers in 100 metropolitan areas retain their phone numbers if and when they decide to switch their carriers. The stringent measures, which carry steep fines for the companies denying customers this right, will go into effect nationwide in May 2004.
U.S. telecoms are hurrying to reach deals with rivals after failing to extend the rapidly coming deadline. In addition, the FCC ruled that landline carriers must also comply with the new rules. Recent studies indicate that nearly half of American households are ready to transfer their landline telephone numbers to wireless operators, if the prices are right.
But the FCC is also looking into another voice transmission technology. The commission has scheduled a December 1 hearing on regulatory issues of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which gains popularity with both corporate and individual users, making long-distance phone calls.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 3 4 5 | InternetNews.com 1 2 | InternetWeek | NewsFactor | TechWeb | WirelessWeek
SCO subpoenas key Linux figures
The SCO Group vs. IBM case over UNIX intellectual property (IP) has now entered a new phase. Just days after IBM subpoenaed prominent analysts and companies, which at some point said Linux claims might be legitimate, the Utah-based SCO Group followed suit and issued subpoenas of its own.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, was SCO's primary target. The group is claiming IBM sought to destroy UNIX by transferring critical code to the Linux kernel. Torvalds' employer, Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) Inc., a consortium working on the improvement of open-source technology, released a statement saying it would offer free legal representation to all of its employees involved in one way or another in the lawsuit. The OSDL is supported by key Linux players, including IBM, Red Hat and others.
SCO also sent subpoenas to OSDL's chief executive Stuart Cohen, GNU's founder Richard Stallman, John Horsley, general counsel of Transmeta, which formerly employed Linus Torvalds, Novell Inc. and Digeo Corp., which employs Linux kernel maintainer Andrew Morton.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | Computerworld | CRN | eWeek | InformationWeek | InfoWorld | InternetNews.com | NewsFactor | The Register | TechWeb
In Other News...
 The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to reexamine a patent owned by the University of California and licensed to Chicago-based Eolas Technologies. Eolas won a $521 million judgment against Microsoft for infringing on its patent for launching plug-ins in its Internet Explorer browser. But the court ruling was met with huge outcry in the web community and forced the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to request a reexamination of the patent in question. In the meantime, Microsoft is preparing to alter its IE technology, which may force web developers worldwide to rewrite millions of web pages.
Three influential U.S. advertising groups have called on the U.S. Congress to adopt federal anti-spam legislation before the end of the year. In an open letter published in a Capitol Hill newsletter, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) urged Congress to pass an anti-spam law, which would stop the practice of inconsistent state-level legislations and would allow legitimate marketers to continue using e-mail-based marketing.
CNET Networks Inc. has reached an agreement with Vivendi Universal to acquire MP3.com for an undisclosed sum. MP3.com, which was one of the first online music services and helped spearhead the success of the MPEG Layer III format, will now become part of CNET's family of technology-oriented web sites. The company declined to give details on MP3.com's future, but a spokeswoman said the site will be used for an upcoming music service, which will not be competing directly with digital music stores such as Apple's iTunes and Roxio's Napster.
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