U.S. lawmakers said on Friday they introduced a measure aimed at overhauling an annual fund intended to ensure nationwide telephone service in high-cost, rural areas by including money for high-speed Internet use.

The bill, introduced by U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, and Lee Terry, a Nebraska Republican, would establish a competitive bidding process and cap the fund.

Rural carriers such as CenturyTel Inc's Embarq and United States Cellular Corp have said funding should stay based on actual costs and said a cap would discourage investment and jeopardize coverage in hard-to-serve areas.

The bill would broaden the base of who pays into the fund to include companies that provide Internet calling services over wireless, cable and satellite networks, as well as the traditional telephone companies and local exchange service providers.

The bill, called the Universal Service Reform Act of 2009, would also direct the FCC, with the help of a federal-state joint board, to set policies including methodologies to determine access to the fund.

AT&T and Verizon lauded the measure, saying it also puts an end to traffic pumping, which is when third-party companies route adult chat and "free" conference calls through rural exchanges in order to generate fees.

Verizon Wireless spokesman David Samberg said he felt confident that Verizon would be able to meet customer demand for the new Droid in New York City. The 34th Street store alone had at least 500 Droids as well as some HTC Android Eris phones, and Samberg said he expects anyone wanting to buy a Droid on Friday in New York City will be able to get one.

"Five hundred phones is a lot of phones to sell in one day," he said.

Gabrielle Dahms admitted she had also been tempted to get the iPhone. But she had heard terrible things about AT&T's network and was leery about making the switch. Instead, she decided to wait for the Droid.

"It has all the features I like on the iPhone," she said. "Plus it has a real keyboard, which sold me."

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said by Matt :

We've decided to drop AT&T (and the iPhone) and go back to Verizon as a Christmas present to ourselves. My daughter and I will get Droids and my GF will get whatever, probably a cheapie. I agree with the girl they interviewed, the Droid has everything I need plus a real keyboard but most of all, it's not on AT&T's network.

said by Jeffrey :

I will not get an iPhone while it's on AT&T. I can't.

I'm due for a Verizon phone upgrade in a few months (April I think), and I'm going to check out this Droid thing then.

(I don't get that crazy about phones and super duper stuff, but I do get nuts when the phone doesn't make or hold phone calls properly.)

My wife has AT&T and she loves it. My Mom and Brother are recent iPhone converts (from Verizon) and they love it. Must be the area, but I say why mess with a good thing.

said by NY Tel :

You can find out your upgrade date by dialing *611 then SEND and when the recording answers, press 2 for your official upgrade date analysis.
Free Call.

said by Jeffrey :

Oh nice, thanks for that info. Ahh Feb 22nd, 2010, closer than I thought.

said by NY Tel :

Yeah, mine's March 5th of 2010...
Be here before you know it.

said by Jeffrey :

QWERTY keyboard aside, what would you choose (if Verizon got the iPhone) at some point in 2010? Droid or iPhone?

said by Jeffrey :

QWERTY keyboard aside, what would you choose (if Verizon got the iPhone) at some point in 2010? Droid or iPhone?

said by Matt :

The answer to this one is very easy. Do you have to have the App Store?

said by Matt :

The answer to this one is very easy. Do you have to have the App Store? Aside from the App Store, the Droid has the iPhone beat in many respects; expandable memory, twice the screen resolution at a higher dpi, qwerty keyboard, adobe flash support, can run background apps, better battery life, and a 5mp camera. Here's the official spec list: »www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN···S-EN.alt

Most people scoff and say not being able to background apps isn't a big deal (I was one of them), until I realized that if I'm doing ANYTHING and want to answer a txt or respond to an email, you have to close your app, respond, re-open your program. This is brutal for apps like Slacker Radio because you lose the song that was playing. And unless you Jailbreak, no backgrounding of any music app except the iPod, period.

said by NY Tel :

And so begins the end of the iPhone as we knew it.
First Shakespeare:Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite......
Then the iPhone....
Alas, poor iPhone I've replaced him with a Droid.

I understand there is an version of the Droid coming out for the clergy. Special apps and the phone will be called the "Druid"....

said by Matt :

A lot of the things the iPhone can do, you can do with any phone that has a decent browser, especially with flash support. That webcam "app" he showed you was nothing more than a run of the mill webcam server running on his PC and a pretty "app" interface wrapped around it. You can do that right now with just about any mobile phone on the market. :)

said by Matt :

My GF loves her iPhone, but when we sat down and thought about it, she realized that aside from a few simple games, she never uses data via 3G, so like you, she just wants an el cheapo phone and will use her iPhone as an iPod Touch via WiFi.

said by TK Junk Mail :

Have a pleasant weekend

said by Matt :

Nice!

Have you seen this commercial? Freaking awesome. I was actually intrigued as hell when I saw it, then when I realized it was a Droid commercial I was like, "Damn!"

said by TK Junk Mail :

Have a pleasant weekend

said by NY Tel :

Yes I saw them and thought it was for some movie of the week
"The world is ending" type flick.
Pretty good directing in the commercial.

said by patcat88 :

This is one of those Fortune 500 commercials that are wonderful to watch, but FAILS at being a commercial. They need Vince Offer (sham wow) or Anthony Sullivan to pitch the phone.

said by KrK :

Telcos will be all behind this. Cable and the like will come out against, methinks.

said by Noah Vail :

He hasn't said anything more outrageous in the last year, than he did in the previous 10. Yet the Beck hatred appeared across all corners of the Leftist universe nearly instantaneously, a bit over a year ago.

said by joebarnhart :

said by amigo_boy :

---

BTW: Will Glenn Beck ever deny the growing rumors that he raped and murdered a young girl? Does he have something to hide? I don't think he does, but the silence is deafening.

---

You have illustrated the point perfectly. Lacking any substantive response, you pass along fabricated lies to discredit Beck. Do you not see why people are starting to realize the rabid left has no credibility?

said by amigo_boy :

From my perspective, Beck criticism grew commensurate with the seeming popularity of his message.

said by Noah Vail :

The openly fabricated Beck rape story is one avenue of attack.

said by amigo_boy :

Nobody has "fabricated a story" (rolling my eyes, throwing my hands wildly around my head) that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990.

said by Issac Eiland-Hall :

Dear Mr. Beck,...My Criticism of you has been amply made--I had my lawyer fight this battle only to help preserve the First Amendment... it is safe, at least from you (for the time being)

said by Noah Vail :

According to Isaac Eiland-Hall, the creator of the site, it was a fabricated story.

said by TKJunkMail :

Your repeated sarcastic posts are growing tiresome. You have beat this dead horse way too long.

said by amigo_boy :

Whatever all that was
Mark