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Former FCC Chief Touts "Big Broadband"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the infinite-bandwidth-now dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Reed Hundt has a vision about building a 10 to 100 Mbps network for every household in the U.S. He makes a great case for why it should be done and how we can pay for it. What's interesting about this piece is that Hundt advocates a new approach to universal service. Instead of giving away broadcast spectrum (for HDTV) and maintaining (ancient, inflexible) phone lines, we should spend money on building out a next generation fiber network to every household, and run both HDTV and phone over that network. Then we can stop funding the phone network (which is pretty much maxed out anyway) and sell off the HDTV spectrum for 10s of billions of dollars."

12 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Where's my flying car? by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Funny
    They promised me a flying car!

    Goddamned Tom Selleck told me I would be able to watch any movie ever made anywhere, anytime. I should kick his ass!

    And what about that moon city?!!! The moon belongs to America! And clean, cheap fusion power stations are only 10 years away!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:Where's my flying car? by mgs1000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought, that in the future, Tom Selleck was going to end up fighting robots that go crazy and kill their owners.

  2. That was yarn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Never mind. That was just some crazy bag lady unrolling yarn everywhere. And you thought it was hi-tech.

  3. Sign me up! by TrollBridge · · Score: 4, Funny
    Ahh yes, universal broadband, complete with government beaurocracy, paid for by taxpayers, funneled directly to the wallets of media industry campaign contributors' wallets.

    Where do I sign up??

    --
    There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
  4. Buying parts of the spectrum? by GrepTar · · Score: 4, Funny

    How much for the visible light part? If someone bought that part, could they sue you for seeing?

  5. Somewhere... by di0s · · Score: 0, Funny

    Jack Valenti just swalled a half a bottle of Pepto Bismol...

  6. Editor's note ..... by BaronAaron · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Big Broadband can carry
    full motion video, download pictures of Paris or Hilton Hotels or
    Paris Hilton (whoever that is), and provide web page access that
    feels like flipping pages of a magazine."

    To wordy, just replace this sentence with "Big Broadband can carry lots of pr0n". People will get the idea.

  7. Re:Yeah, whatever by stratjakt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because it's labor day, and every cable channel is running a marathon of some sort (twilight zone on sci fi, simpsons on fox, monster garage on discovery, etc, etc) and my future megativo 3000 is set to capture them all for me.

    If I have 15 VCRs I can record 15 channels, why would I lose that ability on the ubersystem of the future?

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  8. Re:A regulator's dream by blair1q · · Score: 3, Funny

    You'd prefer AOL to keep being the provider of first resort?

  9. You know what I think by pHatidic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Reed Hundt has a vision about building a 10 to 100 Mbps network for every household in the U.S.

    Wow, this thing will really smoke POTS.

  10. Re:Doubtfull by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Funny
    This is so that bugs for listening can be easily planted via software - into every American home.

    Pardon me, while I adjust my tinfoil beanie!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  11. Re:What about existing platforms that show potenti by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes, I'll go switch cable companies right now! Oh wait, they're all monopolies. Never mind.