back to article FCC chair: 'Unleash more wireless spectrum or face doom'

Although he's facing strong – and at times rabid – opposition to his recently released Open Internet plan, defending the plan isn't the main concern of FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. "Unleashing spectrum to support mobile innovation is at the top of the FCC's 2011 agenda," Genachowski said on Thursday at the Consumer …

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  1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Happy

    So digital was all for nothing?

    So having just chucked out my old analog TVs and buying a new antenna and digital TV's and tuners they are now proposing to dump broadcast TV altogether?

    So who put him up to this? Cox or Time-Warner?

  2. Eddy Ito

    Spectrum! Durn near kill'd em!

    So now I know it isn't that hard to use the word spectrum so many times that it begins to fade out of consciousness like a single blade of grass vanishing into the dew moistened meadow with little blue flowers and the hum of happy bees. If only we could just unleash that 400 to 700 nanometer spectrum and sell it to the highest bidder, we could buy our way out of the dep^H^H^Hrecession and into more jobs in less optical markets.

  3. hEdly
    Thumb Down

    whose gonna pay

    So do we, the folks that watch free broadcast tv, then get cable for free? That 10% he is talking about is mostly likely the older folks and those that cannot afford cable. If it's up to the current administration, they'd probably make some kind of gov't program for those who can't afford it where those who can pay will pay an extra fee. what about those who DON'T want to have 100's of channels. That's where I fall in. I could pay for cable, but I don't watch that much TV.

    1. Radelix

      Im in the same boat

      I'm one of those that now only really requires a phone with 3g and an internet connection for home. I have a HDTV for movies, hulu, and netflix. I have rabbit ears for local news and Law and order.

  4. Mike Flugennock
    FAIL

    as I recall...

    ...the "open internet" plan was actually pretty tepid, sort of puttered around the edges of the problem, and didn't go nearly far enough to ensure 'Net neutrality.

    As far as Obummer being a one-term President... hell, he's doing that himself just fine without the help of Mitch McConnell, or the GOP, for that matter. All he needs to do is keep crapping on his "base" the way he has for the past two years.

  5. Christian Berger

    Spectrum is not the problem

    The problem is how much you invest in your network. Thanks to technologies like adaptive antennas you can increase the capacity a great deal without having to have new frequencies.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Analog TV vs. Digital

    It's maybe worth recalling that the digital TV in the UK isn't all that advanced. Later developments allow a lot of bandwidth to be released. I don't know what standards the USA has adopted, but this approach might recover a lot pf bandwidth, without the same struggle with the politics.

    And since it means large amounts of money will go to existing media companies, to some politicians it might be an indirect bribe. Maybe not campaign contributions, but possibly the news reports become a little more favourable.

    But I wonder how he gets to the figure of "millions of jobs"?

  7. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    Big Brother

    WTF?

    Wait a second... The telcos and Republicans want to allow corporations to control the Internet, then the FCC will sell off free TV spectrum so that everybody must buy TV service from the same telcos? I just checked the local rates for basic HD cable with one jack: $73 + taxes and unspecified fees per month. I'd like a new government now.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Happy

      That's assuming that you can actually GET cable

      Most rural areas in the US (and a lot of the US is rural in case you haven't noticed) doesn't get cable (satellite's the only option) or broadband - hell, a good half the time even cell-phone service involved walking out to one end of the back porch!

      But, on the other hand, what's the difference between 200 channels of crap and 4 local channels of crap? - Just the news and the weather ... does anyone remember local TV markets? When programmers actually knew the audience.

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