RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) has lost an arbitration hearing against VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN) related to a mobile partnership that the companies were involved with, according to an SEC filing that just came out from Real. The judgment came down in May and there was a further ruling on it under which…

The Department of Justice will have a hard time unearthing damaging evidence that mobile carriers in the U.S., including AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), abused their power in recent years, according to several lawmakers and regulators. An article in BusinessWeek today dives into rumors reported by the…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs is back at work, but the company still can’t shake questions about whether it may have misled investors about the status of his health. Seven months after the SEC began an investigation into Apple Inc.‘s public comments on Jobs’s medical condition, the inquiry continues,…

The Department of Justice has started reviewing the practices of mobile carriers in the U.S., including AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), to determine if they have abused their power in recent years, reports the WSJ, which quotes unnamed people familiar with the situation. At this point, it’s…

Already ringtones are more expensive than a full-length song—and pay a higher royalty to the artist than a normal track—but the music industry is trying to make them even more profitable by arguing that someone should pay even more when the 30-second snippet plays in public.

Julius Genachowski started work as the head of the Federal Communications Commission this week and quickly named his key staff. Appointments include litigator and former prosecutor Ed Lazarus as chief of staff, and, from the digital side, Sherrese Smith, most recently VP and general counsel of Washington Post (NYSE: WPO)…

The FCC had decided to take on the task of evaluating whether exclusive handset deals, like AT&T’s hold on the iPhone, is good for consumers after several U.S. senators urged regulators to examine the issue earlier this week. Julius Genachowski, who is Obama’s nominee to head the FCC, will be…

Trouble for Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) in South Korea. The country’s competition regulator has charged the chip maker with unfair licensing terms, as well as charges that the San Diego-based company acknowledged earlier, according to Reuters, citing an unnamed source.

Many music services have been dropping DRM to make their wares more popular, now speculation says Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is about to do the same. This thin story at Mobile-Ent.biz cites “sources” as saying Nokia will remove copy locks from Nokia Music Store in favour of MP3 later this year,…

The IRS has asked Congress to abandon a 1989 law that taxes personal cellphone calls that are paid for by a worker’s company, calling the law “obsolete” thanks to the “passage of time, advances in technology, and the nature of communication in the modern workplace,” reports the WSJ.

We sounded the alarm in May about the UK’s National Rail Enquiries forcing third-party train-times apps offline whilst profiting from its own official offering - and now the UK regulator is investigating whether the practice breaches competition rules… The train info service sent lawyers’ threats to the UK Train Times…

The IRS is so misunderstood. Last week, news surfaced that the tax agency was planning stricter enforcement of a law that taxes the personal use of company-paid cellphones, a move that the wireless industry feared would prompt employers, overwhelmed by paperwork, to cancel their employee’s calling plans. The WSJ.com reports…

Does the company you work for pay your cellphone contract? If it does, the IRS wants you to pay tax on it for being what it calls a “fringe benefit.” According to the WSJ.com, the rule in which company cellphones are considered a taxable benefit rather than a 24/7 work…

The long-delayed digital translation finally is here—but the Obama Federal Communications Commission isn’t. Team Obama pushed to have the analog-to-digital switch moved to June 12—as in this Friday—to avoid as many last-minute glitches as possible, but it hasn’t been able to get its FCC nominees confirmed, starting with Julius Genachowski…

U.S. lawmakers are considering passing legislation that would impose a five-year moratorium on new state and local taxes for cell phones, just in time to prohibit governments from leveraging increasingly popular wireless services—like data and internet—to be a potential revenue source in this economic downturn. Dow Jones reports that taxes…

The UK’s train info operator National Rail Enquiries is forcing unofficial timetable apps offline, as it looks to profit from its own, rather expensive iPhone download. Edinburgh developer Alex Price had launched his UK Train Times webapp (a feature-rich mini website that mimics app features but on a web page…

China Mobile’s plans to buy 12 percent of Taiwanese operator FarEasTone for $533 million has been dealt a blow by the island’s government. Although the Taiwanese government is changing its rules so it will allow investment in 99 manufacturing and service sectors it looks like telecommunication companies will be among…

Fresh from its victory to cap mobile roaming charges for data and text messages, the European Commission’s campaign against “rip-off” mobile telephone charges has a new target: mobile termination rates. EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has authored a set of guidelines asking national telecoms regulators of the 27-country bloc to…

iPCS, which has exclusive rights to operate under the Sprint (NYSE: S) brand in certain areas, including Schaumburg, Ill., said on Friday that an Illinois court refused to dismiss an iPCS case against Sprint related to Sprint’s WiMax joint venture with Clearwire, Reuters reports. In May 2008, iPCS filed suit…