The thing that is holding back broadband in rural america is lack of public bandwidth.

The greedy carriers buy bandwidth, then warehouse it.

Make all the newly available 700 MHz available to the public (including public safety) via part 15 radios, similar to WI-FI, but with stricter rules for mesh forming and emergency responder's prioritization.

Together with geographic routing, an IPV6-like scheme in which the first 64 bits are latitude and longitude, and MIMO, opening 700 to the public will allow thousands of small WI-FI operators to expand into unserved areas.

The carriers would not be cut out, they can build right alongside the mom and pop pops.

Disco Legend Zeke

As long as we have a government (and both Reps, and Dems apply here) that wants to sell frequencies, we'll never have a "free" band anywhere. Public service, yes. But broad band will have trouble being justified as "public service".

The communications "giants" "have to" make their money somewhere. So, unless the Feds intervene, it will either be on the backs of the rural customers or all customers will pay equally. But the consumer WILL pay for it. If the Feds decide to subsidize the service, you know who will actually pay for it. This was the case in Texas for a number of years. Until the Lege found out that the money was going almost everywhere except supporting infrastructure in rural areas. Rate payers were charged a fee to support this. We're charged a fee for just about everything. I pay $19.98 each for two lines, plus $2.95 for distinctive ring on one of those lines and $15.00 for unlimited long distance. But my total bill is around $100.00. Those are some heavy fees and taxes.

...who needs band plans and allocations ! Make 700 MHz a wild-west of might-makes-right, I was here first and I'm not moving, I'll just run more power and use more bandwidth no-man's land like 2.4 Ghz (and how 5.7 is becoming).

I *think* your complaint is against the "greedy carriers" and I agree ! But, making it available to the public on a no-license basis is asking for serious trouble. If anything, 700 should be put under tight license control, with public-safety given primary use of the majority of the band.

The incumbent carriers have plenty of bandwidth higher in frequency - they just covet 700 because their equipment costs are so much lower (less cells/access points per square mile).

Jay_RM

Look at me - I'm a spectrum geek !

We have a duopoly at best in the US at the moment, when it comes to broadband. In many (probably most) areas it's actually a monopoly, if you can get it at all.

Look for DSL and cable modem to be the dominant modes of data communication in the US for the foreseeable future... at least ten to twenty years. Look for every other country with any interest in its citizens to be up around 10 to 20 megabits direct to home while the US is still shouting about how good its 768 kbps downstream, 128 kbps upstream connections are. Which, by the way, will go back up to $30/month (or $40, or more, depending on what inflation does in the interim) as soon as this 60 month period is over. Since as long as the DSL company and the cable company have approximately equivalent offerings, there's no reason for either one to improve anything.

And if they make any real advances, then they won't be able to charge $400/month to businesses for a 1.5 mbps T1.

We are deregulating ourselves into the infrastructure of a third-world country. As long as we are happy with that (as it appears everyone is) then I guess the US should get just what it's asking for. Hard.

-fred

I'm in France, and for 30 euros ($40), I have:

- 5 mb download (24 max, but I'm too far from the exchange)

- 700 kb upload

- Free phone to 40 countries, including all of Europe, the USA and Canada

- MIMO modem hire

That does not stop the operators charging 300 euros ($400) for a 2 meg SDSL line, but rememeber for that price, you are getting :

- a synchronous line (2 meg down, 2 meg up, and not 2 meg down, 0.1 up)

- Minimum bandwitdh guaranteed by Service Level Agreement (you don't get that on a general public offering)

- 24 hour a day hotline

- 4 hours repair time guaranteed by SLA

- Penalties if the SLA is breached by the operator

Cheers,

Daniel