WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – U.S. regulators agreed on Thursday to change an $8 billion national communications subsidy program to put more emphasis on providing high-speed Internet access to rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to shift roughly $4.5 billion spent annually to subsidize rural telephone service over to providing broadband in rural and costly-to-serve areas.

Broadband buildout to unserved areas could begin in early 2012 under the plan, helping bring high-speed Internet to the 18 million Americans who have no access to broadband where they live and work.

“We are taking a system designed for the Alexander Graham Bell era of rotary telephones and modernizing it for the era of Steve Jobs and the Internet future he imagined,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the agency’s open meeting.

The revised universal service program would phase out funding for landline phone service over a period of years as companies move to a competitive bidding process for securing funds for broadband.

Companies now receiving phone service subsidies — paid for through fees added to consumers’ telephone bills — would get first rights in some areas to receive support for deploying broadband service.

The new rules would also eliminate spending on duplicative services offered by several phone companies serving the same area.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – All Americans will have broadband access to Internet and telephone services by the end of the decade under new rules adopted by U.S. regulators.

The rules also reform a broken system of phone charges fraught with inefficiency and should result in $2.2 billion in savings passed down to consumers, the Federal Communications Commission estimates.

The FCC voted unanimously on Thursday to modernize its universal service program, aiming to help the 18 million Americans who have no access to broadband where they live and work.

The new rules will shift the roughly $4.5 billion in public money spent annually to subsidize telephone service for rural families to high-speed Internet in rural America and costly-to-serve areas.

Challenging terrain, long distances from existing networks and low population density are among the factors creating gaps in infrastructure as broadband providers consider these areas not profitable to serve.

“We are taking a system designed for the Alexander Graham Bell era of rotary telephones and modernizing it for the era of Steve Jobs and the Internet future he imagined,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the agency’s open meeting.

Broadband buildout to unserved areas could begin in early 2012 under the plan, bringing high-speed Internet to hundreds of thousands of homes in the near term.

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – All Americans will have broadband access to Internet and telephone services by the end of the decade under new rules adopted by U.S. regulators.

The rules also reform a broken system of phone charges fraught with inefficiency and should result in $2.2 billion in savings passed down to consumers, the Federal Communications Commission estimates.

The FCC voted unanimously on Thursday to modernize its universal service program, aiming to help the 18 million Americans who have no access to broadband where they live and work.

The new rules will shift the roughly $4.5 billion in public money spent annually to subsidize telephone service for rural families to high-speed Internet in rural America and costly-to-serve areas.

Challenging terrain, long distances from existing networks and low population density are among the factors creating gaps in infrastructure as broadband providers consider these areas not profitable to serve.

“We are taking a system designed for the Alexander Graham Bell era of rotary telephones and modernizing it for the era of Steve Jobs and the Internet future he imagined,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the agency’s open meeting.

Broadband buildout to unserved areas could begin in early 2012 under the plan, bringing high-speed Internet to hundreds of thousands of homes in the near term.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government is making it easier for small businesses to beef up defenses against cyber criminals through a free, online tool, the top U.S. communications regulator said on Monday.

The Small Biz Cyber Planner will allow business owners to create customized cybersecurity plans by answering basic questions about their company and its online presence.

“Forty percent of all targeted attacks today are directed at companies with less than 500 employees,” said Cheri McGuire, vice president of global government affairs and cybersecurity policy at Symantec Corp.

The Obama administration has pushed initiatives to protect businesses and consumers from data breaches as lawmakers remain at odds over comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.

The administration’s latest effort — a collaboration of government experts and private information technology and security companies, including the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Homeland Security the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Symantec, Visa Inc, Automatic Data Processing Inc, Bank of America Corp and others — will be available in November.

“Small businesses that don’t take protective measures are particularly vulnerable targets for cyber criminals,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

A new survey by Symantec and the National Cyber Security Alliance released on Monday found that only 52 percent of small businesses had a basic cybersecurity strategy or plan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The wireless industry is rolling out more consumer-friendly billing practices, fending off a plan by communications regulators to impose new rules against unexpected charges.

Guidelines unveiled on Monday by the wireless trade association, CTIA, will see companies send alerts to customers when they near or reach monthly limits on voice, text and data services, and before they incur international roaming charges.

The guidelines are similar to rules the Federal Communications Commission was contemplating, and the regulator is backing off its plan for now.

“Consistent with the FCC’s ongoing efforts, these actions harness technology to empower consumers, and ensure consumers get a fair shake, not bill shock,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

The FCC has found that one in six mobile phone users have experienced bill shock, or unexpected fees tacked onto their monthly bills, and 23 percent of those users have faced unexpected charges of $100 or more.

The FCC proposed rules last October that would make mobile phone companies send text or voice alerts to customers before charging them for services not covered by their plans.

Consumers should begin receiving warnings about their bills faster under the industry initiative than the FCC would have been able to require through the rulemaking process.

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. wireless industry is rolling out more consumer-friendly billing practices, fending off a plan by communications regulators to impose new rules against unexpected charges.

Guidelines to be unveiled on Monday by the wireless trade association, CTIA, will see companies send alerts to customers when they near and reach monthly limits on voice, text and data services, and before they incur international roaming charges.

Similar to rules the Federal Communications Commission was contemplating, the regulator is backing off its plan for now.

“Consistent with the FCC’s ongoing efforts, these actions harness technology to empower consumers, and ensure consumers get a fair shake, not bill shock,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

The FCC has found that one in six mobile phone users have experienced bill shock, or unexpected fees tacked onto their monthly bill, and 23 percent of those users faced unexpected charges of $100 or more.

The FCC proposed rules last October that would make mobile phone companies send text or voice alerts to customers before charging them for services not covered by their plans.

Consumers should begin receiving warnings about their bills faster under the industry initiative than the FCC would have been able to require through the rulemaking process.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumers are less anonymous than they think while surfing the Web, according to a study released on Tuesday that triggered new calls for “do not track” rules.

More than half of the 185 high-traffic websites looked at in the study shared a consumer’s username or user ID with another site, Stanford University’s Computer Security Laboratory found.

Google, Facebook, comScore and Quantcast were among the top recipients of username and user ID information.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the study would help in the agency’s efforts to protect consumers’ online privacy and keep at bay what he called the “cyberazzi,” likening behavioral advertising and data collection to the paparazzi known for tracking celebrities’ every move.

“A host of invisible cyberazzi, cookies and other data catchers follow us as we browse, reporting our every stop and action to marketing companies that in turn collect an astonishingly complete profile of our online behavior,” Leibowitz said at a privacy forum at the National Press Club on Tuesday.

In a preliminary staff report issued late last year, the FTC backed the creation of a “do not track” option for the Internet that would limit the ability of advertisers to collect consumers’ data.

Leibowitz said he envisioned a system that would be easy for consumers to use “and one that all companies employing cyberazzi have to respect.”

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Consumers are less anonymous than they think while surfing the Web, according to a study released on Tuesday that triggered new calls for “do not track” rules.

More than half of the 185 high-traffic websites looked at in the study shared a consumer’s username or user ID with another site, Stanford University’s Computer Security Laboratory found.

Google , Facebook, comScore and Quantcast were among the top recipients of username and user ID information.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the study would help in the agency’s efforts to protect consumers’ online privacy and keep at bay what he called the “cyberazzi,” likening behavioral advertising and data collection to the paparazzi known for tracking celebrities’ every move.

“A host of invisible cyberazzi, cookies and other data catchers follow us as we browse, reporting our every stop and action to marketing companies that in turn collect an astonishingly complete profile of our online behavior,” Leibowitz said at a privacy forum at the National Press Club on Tuesday.

In a preliminary staff report issued late last year, the FTC backed the creation of a “do not track” option for the Internet that would limit the ability of advertisers to collect consumers’ data.

Leibowitz said he envisioned a system that would be easy for consumers to use “and one that all companies employing cyberazzi have to respect.”

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Challenges to new U.S. Internet traffic rules will be heard in the federal appeals court in Washington D.C., a court that has previously been skeptical of the Federal Communications Commission’s authority.

A judicial panel that manages multidistrict litigation said on Thursday it had randomly selected the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to hear appeals of the FCC’s “Open Internet” order.

The same appeals court ruled last year that the FCC lacked the authority to stop Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) from blocking bandwidth-hogging applications on its broadband network, spurring the agency’s rulemaking.

“The FCC is in for a rough legal battle given the past history of net neutrality in the D.C. circuit,” said Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeffrey Silva.

The FCC has repeatedly expressed confidence in the legal foundation backing the rules which are due to take effect Nov. 20. “The FCC stands ready to defend its open Internet order in any court of appeals,” an agency spokesman said on Thursday.

Adopted by a divided FCC last December, the Internet rules seek to balance the interests of consumers and content providers with those who sell access to the Web and often supply their own content.

The rules forbid broadband providers from blocking legal content while leaving flexibility for providers to manage their networks.

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. communications regulator unveiled on Thursday a proposal for achieving universal broadband coverage by the end of the decade.

Some 18 million Americans do not have access to broadband where they live and work despite some $4.5 billion in public money spent each year to subsidize telephone service for rural families.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed a strategy for revamping that government subsidy program to help deploy high-speed Internet service to millions of Americans living in rural and costly-to-serve areas.

“The costs of this broadband gap are measured in jobs not created, existing job openings not filled and our nation’s competitiveness not advanced,” Genachowski said in a speech on Thursday, acknowledging that the current program is broken.

The FCC earlier in the year proposed modernizing the $8 billion universal service fund — paid for through fees added to consumers’ telephone bills — to spur infrastructure investment while removing inefficiencies in the program.

Genachowski’s proposal would gradually move the largest program within the universal service fund, the program that subsidizes telephone service, to directly support fixed and mobile broadband.

His plan would also phase out funding for duplicating services offered by several phone companies serving the same area.