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UK to Privatize Radio Spectrum?
judgecorp writes "The UK regulator, Ofcom, has decided that managing spectrum is a drag, and there are other people around that might do a better job. It is going to open up 73 percent of the radio spectrum to market forces, and make it technology-neutral and tradeable. So if one technology gets superseded, another one can get rolled out instead (subject to broadcast power limits) without Ofcom having to define what spectrum it should use. Radio was first regulated here 100 years ago this year, and a new regime is needed to fit new radio technology. Ofcom is quite proud to be ahead of the US on this one, because we have a recent Communications Act, and the FCC is 'hamstrung' by old laws - at least that's what the head of research at Ofcom said."
because privatising british rail and british telecom went so well.
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This is a good idea, as long as there will be a natural resource tax to reduce hoarding and speculation.
Latest news:
At least seven ham radio operators have died, and over 70 CB operators injured during a routine QSO on 10m between London and Kings Lynn. It is reported that one of the side band of the AM transmission derailled off the airwave and careened into the 11m band, injuring many CB operators. The hams QSOing on 10m were found dead, but one of them managed to write "WHERE IS THIS COUNTRY GOING TO? ARRRRGGHHH I DIE...." with his own blood on his contact map.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I'm sure Clear Channel would make a great replacement for the FCC.
But seriously - how do you create a fair competitive market environment for all while treading the line between fascist govt control and private industry monopolization. As much as our politico's thump the podium about 'free markets' they simply allow single entities to get away with abuse of an advantage to corner entire winner-take-all markets that's anything but free.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
It's about time someone did this. There's no reason for the airwaves to be publicly owned.
You HAVE to be joking...
Public ownership of the airwave exists because, in reality, no-one can own it in the first place. In fact, it's not owned at all, just regulated (i.e. Big Brother slaps you on the fingers if you annoy your radio neighbours).
It's just like air and oceans, you know. You can't really own it, just manage it, because it's everybody's and nobody's at the same time.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The UK government has the ability to seize back the privatised items if they are convinced that the privatisation was not successful longterm. This is what stops private companies from sitting on public resources. For example, British Rail was privatised at the start of the 1990s, with the actual physical rail network being sold to a private company called Railtrack, which the government had a shareholder interest in. In 2001 it was determined that Railtrack was not carrying out its job correctly and seized back the UK rail network after having a UK court agree, placing it in control of a public company called Network Rail. For those of you that think this is 'bad', this _is_ the agreement these companies entered into when they purchased the privatised utilities.
Because private ownership is so much better?
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The problem with private ownership of the bandwidths will in my opinion be that it hampers innovation by anyone else but those who own the bandwidth. And you will rely on that one vendor for producing anything within the bandwidths they own.
This does not pose a problem in itself though, but my guess is that a few big companies will obtain ownership of an unproportionally large portion of the bandwidth(s) to monopolize certain types of services.
Remember we're not just talking the transistor radio frequencies but the entire non-military range of frequencies.
soon in the news: Berlusconi's Italy follows ofcom example and
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
How much does it cost to buy "RED" (a band around 630nm wavelength)? I want to rent the "X" in the Union Jack to the Queen.
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make install -not war