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Should The FCC Be Abolished?
stwrtpj writes "CNET is running an interesting commentary from its chief political correspondent explaining why the FCC should be abolished. When I saw this link from NewsForge, my initial reaction was that he was full of it, but after I RTFA, I have to admit that he makes some interesting points. So how about it? Should the FCC be abolished? Can the market regulate itself yet?"
Satellites put out rather small amounts of output power compared to terrestial transmitters; and the inverse square law means the strength of the signal from, say, a DirecTV transponder is greatly diminished. The fact that satellite operators are guaranteed spectrum that will be clear from interference is one of the many necessary economic conditions to make communications satellite launches profitable/worthwhile.
In addition, the FCC helped fuel DBS satellite TV adoption by pre-empting local laws, and codes, covenants, and restrictions (all those long restrictions on land's use generally put in place by the original developer) from prohibiting satellite dishes/antennas smaller than 1m. Prior to that, most developments and tract houses (and some entire cities) were banning their use. This is another thing that the FCC did that helped make DBS worthwhile.
It doesn't take much output power to mess other things up.. A few hundred milliwatts is enough to interfere with GPS with everyone you have line of sight to (including airplanes). Regulation preventing everyone from stomping on everyone else is good.
This doesn't mean I agree with everything the FCC does; policy on the ISM band is lackluster, and the FCC leans way too hard to protect existing licensees in AM, FM, and TV broadcast applications at the expense of new services and local operators.
Ham operators have huge bands all to themselves, for what amounts to a glorified boys' clubhouse.
You, sir, are both incorrect and offensive.
First off, many of the frequencies that ham radio operators have access to are shared. Also, for the radio spectrum below 1.3GHz, ham radio operators have access to less than 130MHz of spectrum. That's less than 10 percent. I think "huge" is an overstatement.
Second, ham radio is much more than "a glorified boys' clubhouse." That you should suggest such a thing is an insult to all of the ham volunteers who have assisted in natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, fires) unnatural disasters (terrorist attacks), and public events (parades, etc.). Ham volunteers play a vital role in large-scale emergency situations, and organizations of ham operators exist for this explicit purpose. Public service is, in fact, one of the most (if not single most) critical tenets of ham radio.
Furthermore, some the core ideals and culture of ham radio are experimentation and exploration, to push the limits and find new ways of doing things. Ideals that are very similar, I think, to the hacker (in the original sense) culture.
So, before you make such statements, check your facts and and consider what you would lose if you had your way.
~~LightForce, KC8EPG
The original purpose of the FCC was to do one thing and one thing only - make sure that people weren't allowed to 'war' over the broadcast spectrum by trying to get in the way of each other's signals. That was their only purpose. The demarking of the radio dial into discrete 'channels' was for this purpose only. The necessity of needing to register to be allowed to use a channel was for this purpose only. It was purely to make sure that if big bully company X wants to compete on the airwaves with little company Y, it cannot use the technique of drowning out company Y's signal. It has to compete on content instead. This is where the original ban on a company owning more than a few channels in an area came from - Since there are a limited number of them, one could use the tactic of buying them all up to prevent a competitor from being able to register them. This is also where the original requirement on broadcasting your callsign every so often came from. If you want to buy the licensing to use a limited resource, you have to prove you are actually making use of it and not just buying it for the sake of keeping it out of someone else's hands. So they made the requirement that you must broadcast at least your callsign if nothing else, a certain number of times a day, in order to keep using that channel and keep your license valid. (This is why radio stations are constantly butting in to tell you what station you're listening to, by the way.)
If *that* was all the FCC did, then they wouldn't be a problem. They'd be no more dictatorial than your local county registrar that you have to post your title deed to as proof you own a piece of land in the event of a dispute.
What made the FCC bad is when they used their licensing power to start dictating other things about a broadcast. Instead of just regulating the demarkation of the radio spectrum so that people don't step all over each other's signals, they started withholding licenses purely for content reasons, and that's what needs to be repealed.
Take away the regulation by content, but keep the regulation that separates RF frequencies from each other.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
"Just an honest question here, but why is cable acceptable and broadcast not?"
I think the basic difference is that you have to pay to have cable installed. If the content is objectionable, you can stop paying and halt the service. You can't hault broadcast TV.
Hope that helps.
"Derp de derp."
I agree. I'm in the RF industry, and I can tell you from first hand experience that, while the FCC has many negative attributes, it carries some crucial resposibilities. The FCC governs the wireless spectrum; everything from defining bands for various devices, to ensuring the safety of the public. Look at Nigeria. As far as I have been informed, there is either no governmental regulation on RF, or the public doesn't pay any heed, (neither would surprise me, as the country rates in the top 5 as most corrupted countries). In Nigeria, the broadband spectrums, (2.4, 5.8GHz) are so unorganized that they are building long distance, high power links right on top of each other. Instead of working with an agency like the FCC to coordinate different company interests, they simply turn up the volume. Almost every piece of wireless broadband equipment has an amplifier on it, even those reaching only a few hundred yards, to say nothing of the ones going 10-20 miles. :) but on the other hand, when someone acts up, and puts up a pirate radio station, or causes interference into a legitimate channel, the FCC is generally there to bite them in the butt.
The FCC not only organizes this effort, but also enforces it. Sure, we frown on them for coming down like a ton of bricks on Janet's boob, (who wouldn't - frown I mean.
I agree that the FCC is slowing our technological progress down, but they also provide crucial services. I suppose my suggestion might be to melt them down and start over, creating, (immediately) an organization who can administer the airwaves, (and phone lines, etc.) and then figure out what else NEEDS to be included, without giving them free reign over all things communication related.
Raging in an online forum won't do anything for the world around you. To see change, you must take action.