Two weeks ago, the Federal Communications Commission submitted its first-ever National Broadband Plan to Congress. In Part 1 of this series, the FCC’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, took the time to explain why the United States needs a new, comprehensive approach to broadband and what the goals of the Plan are.

In Part 2, the chairman takes a step back and looks at the “big picture,” discussing his vision for the FCC as an organization and communications issues that he has prioritized since becoming its chief.

Read the full interview at The Hill's Pundits Blog.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he receives a daily prayer devotional on his BlackBerry.

Read more...

The FAA and IBM will partner up over the coming months to research a cybersecurity system to safeguard flight data.

Read more...

MONDAY BLOG ROUNDUP:
IT problems still hound census - Emily Long, Tech Daily Dose
AT&T U-Verse gets 24mbps downloads  - Margueritte Reardon, CNet
Technology can improve healthcare - Steve Lohr, Bits
Biden literally wants you to use tax gadget - Nancy Scola, techPresident
FB changes would share data with other sites - Rob Pegoaro, Faster Forward
China now blocking mobile services - Matthew Ingram, Giga OM
Apple posts boat load of iPad videos - Jason Kincaid, Tech Dirt
Snitch on pirates, earn $25k a year - Jacqui Cheng, ars technica
AT&T, Verizon balk at FCC merger conditions for Skyterra - Cecilia Kang, Post Tech

OTHER STORIES FROM THE HILL:
State Dept. raises 'concerns' with Australian Web censorship - The Hill
Senate's cyber crime bill gaining steam in House - The Hill
U.S. could surrender nanotech lead - The Hill
Unused NASA tower epitomizes fight over space budget - The Hill

Google's mobile phone service remains partially blocked in China on Monday, though it remains unclear what the source of the spotty access might be.

Company executives have so far declined to offer reporters an explanation for its recent disruptions, which it first announced on a page it erected for users to monitor its service status in China.

However, the search giant's ambiguity has nonetheless prompted many to question whether the partial block stems from Google's decision last week to cease censoring its search results in China.

Google shuttered its Google.cn webpage this month in response to a cyberattack company executives believe originated at two Chinese schools.  As predicted, the move has invoked the ire of Beijing's leaders and forced some Chinese companies to reconsider their contracts with the U.S.-based search company. 

China's largest mobile phone company -- China Unicom -- even went as far as to drop its deal with Google last week, perhaps out of fear that officials in Beijing would penalize them for using the company's Android operating system.

The Department of Justice and European Commission on Monday approved Cisco's $3.4 billion bid for Tandberg, a Norwegian-based video conferencing company.

Ultimately, the deal makes Cisco -- the world's largest video conferencing equipment manufacturer -- also the world's biggest video conferencing service.

According to the European Commission, which rendered a "conditional" approval on Monday, Cisco must still fix a video conferencing protocol that could create "interoperability" issues with its competitors.

Still, all signs seemed to point to a clean, completed $3.34 billion deal between Cisco and Tandberg, which company executives first announced last December.

In a release on Monday, DOJ officials stressed the Cisco deal would not prove anti-competitive.

Citing the European Commission's decision, DOJ regulators "concluded that the proposed deal is not likely to be anticompetitive due to the evolving nature of the video conferencing market."

The State Department has reportedly approached the Australian government about plans to filter its citizens' access to objectionable Web content.

Read more...

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) on Friday announced she would sponsor her chamber's effort to penalize countries that fail to crack down on local cyber criminals.

The legislation -- introduced in the upper chamber last week by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) -- would charge federal officials with the responsibility of working with "countries of cyber concern" to develop security plans of action.

Ultimately, those states that failed to set and meet cybersecurity benchmarks would risk cuts to their U.S. export dollars, foreign-direct investment funds and trade assistance grants, according to the bill.

The effort arrives months after series of high-profile cyberattacks targeted countless U.S. businesses, including Google.

“Cybersecurity is a key tool in our national security infrastructure,” Clarke said in a statement last week. “Cyberspace has no borders or boundaries."

"The international community must go after cyber criminals wherever they may be, or our American businesses and consumers will continue to suffer," she added.

Read more...

The United States "stands to surrender its global lead" in nanotechnology research, unless federal officials and lawmakers do more to encourage investment, a report delivered to President Barack Obama found.

Currently, the United States is at the front of the pack, bolstered by an 18 percent increase in public and private investments in nanotechnology between 2003 and 2008, according to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which released the report last week.

But countries like China and South Korea, as well as the European Union, are now posting strong gains in the nanotechnology field, researchers found. While the United States still holds more nanotechnology patents than any other country, China outpaced American researchers last year in its number of patent applications, according to the report.

Consequently, PCAST warns that the United States' lead in the industry remains "threatened," and it recommends federal officials take quick, decisive action to spur growth in the field.

Read more...