• It has been reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated an antitrust investigation of cable company data limits and other practices that limit access to the content of competing companies like Hulu and Netflix. Comcast has come under fire recently for excluding its own Xbox 360 video offering from data caps. See April 2, April 23, and May 21 editions of This Week in Telecom. Neither DOJ nor any target company has commented on the investigation.
  • On June 13, 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) released a list of more than 1,900 new generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs) that have been applied for as part of ICANN’s global expansion of the domain name system. ICANN is providing a short time period for interested parties to file public comments and/or formal objections to any proposed gTLDs. Google filed for 101 gTLDs, such as “.lol” and “.boo”, and Amazon filed for 76, including “.cloud”. Many gTLDs have multiple claims on them, such as “.app”. The full list of potential gTLDs is here.
  • The FCC has announced the panelists and the agenda for its TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund Workshop to be held June 25, 2012, from 2:00-3:30 pm Eastern. The workshop regards “the Commission’s program to reimburse the costs that some broadcasters are likely to incur as a result of channel reassignments in connection with the repacking authorized by the 2012 Spectrum Act.” The TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund holds $1.75 Billion. Panelists will include representatives from Harris Corporation, Deloitte Consulting, Sprint Nextel Corporation, and the National Association of Broadcasters. More information may be found here.
  • Short form applications for the FCC mobility auction must be filed between June 27 and July 11, 2012. The auction will take place on September 27, 2012 and will distribute as much as $300 million from the USF. A news release on the auction is available here. The procedures for the auction are available here.