Tech Check
- 3D's Tipping Point and Your Living Room
- Silicon Valley and Hollywood Now Fast Friends
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- Dell Has Some Explaining to Do
- Dell May Start to Show Some Promise
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
MOST SHARED
- Ritz-Carlton ?Struggling? in the US: President
- Garlic Price Rises Surpass Gold, Stocks in China
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- New-Home Sales Jump 6.2% To Highest Level in Over Year
- Oil Price to Average $75.40 in 2010: Poll
- Half of Banks' Losses May Still Be Hidden: IMF Head
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
- Consumer Mood Improves, But Anxiety Over Personal Finances
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Black Friday: Can Banks Tap the Frenzy, Too?
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- 4 Food Stocks to Stuff in Your Portfolio: Analyst
- S&P at 1050-1200 Trading Range Next Year: Strategist
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- For Many in US, It Will Be a Scaled-Down Holiday Season
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Foreign Demand Boosts US 7-Year Treasury Sale
- Google CEO Schmidt Makes Secret Visit to Iraq
- New-Home Sales Jump to Highest Level in Over a Year
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- Jobless Claims Below 500,000, Durable Orders Slip
RSS FEED
Text Size 
Silicon Valley Bureau Chief
I'm in San Diego today at the big CTIA Wireless expo, and while big names like Apple Inc. and Dell [DELL
Loading...
()
] aren't here, bigger names like Julius Genachowski and Ralph de la Vega and Lowell McAdam are.
I had the rare chance to sit down with Genachowski this morning. (See the full interview here.) As the chairman of the Federal Communication Commission, he sits at the crossroads of some of the most dynamic periods in technological innovation in this country. Wireless is where it's at, and with marching orders from President Obama to become more active, we'll be hearing a lot from him.
I asked if his agency was becoming more "activist," and not merely more "active." He agreed and said the FCC is becoming more pro-active, will take the steps necessary to foster competition, but also do what's necessary to protect consumer, and choice, and services.
Yesterday's news from AT&T [T
Loading...
()
] that Skype would now run on its 3G network on the iPhone [AAPL
Loading...
()
] is a prime example, he says. AT&T took the "voluntary step," but only after it received a letter from his office.
That's something about which I asked AT&T's Mobility CEO de la Vega about during my exclusive interview. (See the full interview here.) He said it was absolutely voluntary, that his company is responding to customer requests, period.
In the same interview, he confirmed for the first time that Google's Android [GOOG
Loading...
()
] operating system phones would be coming to AT&T. He declined to name manufacturers or a time-table, but about an hour later, reports surfaced that Dell's first US phone, running Android, would be coming to market next year.
It's a huge win for Google, which just yesterday signed a sweeping partnership with Verizon. With AT&T, T-Mobile [DT
Loading...
()
], Sprint [S
Loading...
()
], Google's now got 'em all.
I asked Genachowski about Google's issues with Apple. That Apple claims it has merely delayed Google Voice from the App Store, and that Google called that a lie and said the app had been denied. The FCC chairman says he is prepared to take Apple at its word but that his office continues to examine the situation.
De la Vega drove the point home that competition in the wireless industry is alive and well, and if it "isn't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed." He said his impressions of Genachowski are good, he thinks he's a reasonable, intelligent fellow and looks forward to working with him (de la Vega is the incoming chairman of the CTIA lobbying group.)
Meantime, net neutrality takes center stage on Oct. 22 in a major hearing in Washington. But even Genachowski concedes it'll be a long process before there's any changes. Seems to me, the more open the networks, the more room there is for competition, but what do I know.
Disclosure: Oh, and for what it's worth: Genachowski owns an iPhone. And loves it.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes