The latest issue of The Wavelength focuses on mega mergers in the telecomm industry.  The Media Consortium's Eric Arnold, who put together the bi-weekly e-news digest, refers to a story by Public News Service's Mark Scheerer in which he says that Microsoft's acquisition of Skype will be beneficial if "Microsoft will more strongly embrace network neutrality and other policies aimed at keeping the Web free."

Eric also picks the interesting argument of AlterNet's David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick that the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions has put the telecom industry on a course of anti-competitive behavior. The answer, they say, is divestiture, which "will lead to increased competition, lower costs and better service."

Nadia Prupis of Truthout's story about Federal Communication's Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker joining Comcast as senior vice-president for government affairs is of great significance. Nadia notes that Baker advocated strongly in favor of Comcast during the commission's review of the $30 billion merger with NBC Universal earlier this year.

In another report, Prupis says that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is leading a Senate probe into privacy issues raised by smart phones and other mobile broadband-enabled devices.

Another interesting report about Comcast included in this week's Wavelength focuses on a recent study by Free Press (PDF available here). The report says Comcast-owned Telemundo stations haven't kept promises made to feature more local news – a key condition of the Comcast-NBC merger. While the study suggests that a poor commitment to localism for Telemundo stations was a pre-existing condition, dating back to NBC Universal's 2002 purchase of the Spanish-language network, it also found that "Comcast has committed to increasing local news production in only six of the 15 communities served by its Telemundo owned-and-operated stations (O&Os)."

Also included in the new issue of Wavelength are links to articles about the first online list of protest music, world press freedom day, and an ethnic press debate on media policy issues.

Check out the latest issue The Wavelength. You can link or repost for free.