Federal Communications Commission

Enrollment in a controversial program that provides free cell phone service to low-income families has increased faster in Maryland than any other state in the nation, jumping nearly 90-fold since 2008 — renewing scrutiny on Capitol Hill over its management. The Lifeline program, created in 1984 to soften the impact of telephone deregulation on low-income families, had nearly 509,000 subscribers in the state last year, up from 5,821 in 2008. Growth in Maryland was nearly 40 times greater than the national average.

Enrollment in a controversial program that provides free cell phone service to low-income families has increased faster in Maryland than any other state in the nation, jumping nearly 90-fold since 2008 — renewing scrutiny on Capitol Hill over its management. The Lifeline program, created in 1984 to soften the impact of telephone deregulation on low-income families, had nearly 509,000 subscribers in the state last year, up from 5,821 in 2008. Growth in Maryland was nearly 40 times greater than the national average.

FCC grants satellite licensesThe Federal Communications Commission awarded licenses yesterday to three ventures for low orbit satellite communication systems.Applications were granted to Iridium, Odyssey and Globalstar, all owned by various partners eager to get into the new field. The licenses give the go-ahead for the companies to launch networks of satellites that will allow customers to use hand-held communicators anywhere in the world.

Should your cell phone company decide who can send you a text message? Should your Internet service provider block your Internet movie because it doesn't like the file-sharing service you're using? We suspect that most consumers would say no. When people sign up for a communications service, Big Brother shouldn't come with the deal. However, some corporations are willing to stick their noses in their customers' business. The Federal Communications Commission should tell them to butt out. If the FCC won't, Congress should.

Today in history: Feb. 23 In 1836, the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas. In 1848, the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, died of a stroke at age 80. In 1861, President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office, an assassination plot having been foiled in Baltimore. In 1927, President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission. In 1954, the first mass inoculation of children with the Salk polio vaccine began, in Pittsburgh.

Maryland must complete an environmental assessment before the Federal Communications Commission will consider allowing a 180-foot communications tower near two Civil War battlefields and the Appalachian Trail, the FCC says. Federal regulators have determined the state failed to study the tower's potential effect on areas that could be certified as "rural historic landscapes," Jeffrey S. Steinberg, an FCC official, said in a letter to Paul Rosa of the Harpers Ferry Conservancy, a foe of the tower.

In a report to the federal government yesterday on the latest accident to disrupt its long-distance service, AT&T for the first time attributed the Sept. 17 incident largely to a supervisor's choosing not to dispatch a technician for a routine inspection.Little else in the report, submitted last night to the Federal Communications Commission, which has jurisdiction over AT&T, shed new light on the general picture of equipment failure compounded by human misjudgment.The accident, which occurred at 4:50 p.m., not only snarled about half of New York's long-distance phone calls but disrupted air traffic at the New York area's three big airports at one of the busiest hours of the day.

In the Region Gilden ad agency donates cash, services to UM nursing school Gilden Advertising has donated $1.2 million in cash, services and in-kind gifts to the University of Maryland School of Nursing to help recruit students into the field during a nursing shortage. Baltimore-based Gilden is developing an integrated marketing campaign, including advertising, graphic design, public relations, market research and media planning for the nursing school. The campaign comes at a time when the Maryland Hospital Association found an average nursing vacancy rate of 14.7 percent during the first three months of 2000.

Discounts offered on ulcer drugSmithKline Beecham Plc said it's offering U.S. consumers a $10 discount when they buy the U.K. pharmaceutical company's Tagamet ulcer drug. In a statement, the company said rebate coupons will be available through physicians' offices and in retail drug stores across the United States.Go-ahead given on TV technologyA group of companies collaborating on high-definition television technology received clearance yesterday to build a prototype system.An advisory panel to the Federal Communications Commission unanimously recommended that the companies begin construction on four of the system's components -- audio, scanning formats, video compression and transport.

Giant raises stock dividendHHTCGiant Food Inc., the Landover-based grocer that dominates the Baltimore-Washington market, raised its annual stock dividend yesterday from 72 cents per share to 74 cents.Giant has raised its dividend annually for many years in a row. A quarterly dividend at the higher rate of 18.5 cents per share will be paid June 2 to shareholders of record May 12.CSAV now direct to Brazil portsThe CSAV shipping line has begun service between Baltimore and South America's east coast, the Maryland Port Administration said yesterday.

WASHINGTON -- Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mel Karmazin clarified yesterday his pledge to freeze prices in order to win approval of the proposed $4.29 billion purchase of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Karmazin, testifying at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on digital radio, said XM or Sirius subscribers who elect to keep their existing service after the companies combine won't see a price increase from the...

WASHINGTON -- It may be the only talk-radio station in America where federal workers won't get bashed. On WFED Federal News Radio, 1050 AM, the region's army of bureaucrats is the target audience, tuning in to the low-power station's Silver Spring signal from as far north as Columbia and Fort Meade. It's a concept that could work only in the Washington area: 24 hours of daily programming on federal pay, retirement benefits, contract management and the occasional dig at politicians - spiced up with programs such as Who's Your Data?

SAN FRANCISCO - Almost half of cell-phone users feel hemmed in by the hefty fees they face for early termination of their contracts, according to a new survey from a consumer advocacy group. The survey of 1,000 households found that 47 percent said they'd consider dropping their plan if they didn't have to pay an early-termination fee, and 13 percent of that group said they'd switch as soon as possible. Ipsos North America conducted the poll for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, which included the survey in a report on the cell-phone industry.

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators unanimously agreed yesterday to relax regulations on phone companies' high-speed Internet services, a decision cheered by Bell companies and booed by consumer advocates. The Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to reclassify digital subscriber lines as an "information service" that would be far less regulated than traditional phone service. The change means the government no longer will require phone companies to lease their high-speed lines at regulated rates to competing Internet service providers such as Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc. BellSouth Vice President Herschel Abbott said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin "should be widely applauded for pushing to completion these sweeping changes."

ONE DAY in the not-too-distant future, all the TV sets in your home that aren't hooked to cable boxes will turn into pumpkins. If you want to receive over-the-air broadcasts, you'll have to replace them with sets that cost at least twice as much, or pay a $100 "digital TV tax" for each set. That's what I call the estimated cost of a converter that will enable your set to do what it did for free the day before - receive TV broadcasts. You can thank Congress for this opportunity. Back in 1996, our lawmakers, the nation's broadcasters, the Federal Communications Commission and the folks who make consumer electronics hatched a scheme that will cost households hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each for something they have demonstrated only a marginal appetite for so far - high definition digital television (HDTV)

I hold a substantial number of shares of SBC Communications Inc. and have incurred a considerable loss since purchasing them in 2002. What are the prospects for this company? - R.E., Columbia, Conn. This telecommunications powerhouse with investments in 14 countries is getting even bigger. Its $16 billion purchase of AT&T Corp., expected to be completed by mid-2006, would make it the largest U.S. communications company. The future of its stock will be decided by how investors view the deal.

Preservationists concerned about plans to put an emergency communications tower near Ellicott City's historic district filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, asking for an extension to comment on a public document that they say was - for all intents and purposes - withheld from them. The tower, which the state plans to build and share with Howard County, is part of a communications system upgrade for public safety workers. Officials want to build the 340-foot structure next to District Court, several hundred feet from the historic district.

WASHINGTON - Over the objection of at least one regulator who sought harsher punishment, the Federal Communications Commission is set to impose a record $550,000 fine against CBS-owned stations for showing singer Janet Jackson's breast at the end of her halftime performance during the Super Bowl on Feb. 1. The fine is expected to be announced within two weeks, two FCC sources said yesterday. It signals a more pointed government effort to crack down on broadcasters amid mounting public criticism that television and radio stations have become too coarse and explicit.

CHICAGO -- We can all remember, with shock, the first time we caught sight of a bare breast on network television. It happened just eight months ago, during the Super Bowl halftime show, when singer Justin Timberlake yanked down Janet Jackson's top and exposed, for a fleeting instant, an item of flesh never before seen by a broadcast audience. What's that you say? That wasn't the first time? Hmm. I take it viewers got a glimpse of an unmistakably female chest back in 2002, on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

WASHINGTON - Over the objection of at least one regulator who sought harsher punishment, the Federal Communications Commission is set to impose a record $550,000 fine against CBS-owned stations for showing singer Janet Jackson's breast at the end of her halftime performance during the Super Bowl on Feb. 1. The fine is expected to be announced within two weeks, two FCC sources said yesterday. It signals a more pointed government effort to crack down on broadcasters amid mounting public criticism that television and radio stations have become too coarse and explicit.