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Senate Discusses Third Pipe Using 700MHz Spectrum
Freebird writes "The US Senate Commerce Committee held hearings on the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction today, and much of the discussion centered around Frontline Wireless' proposal to create a commercial wireless broadband network that would also be used for public safety. 'Under Frontline's proposal, the FCC would auction off 10 MHz from the commercially available spectrum and offer that to the highest bidder. The winner would also be given (free) 12 MHz out of the 24 MHz currently allotted to public safety.' Some senators were skeptical, especially Ted Stevens of Alaska who had a 'long and testy interchange' with Frontline CEO James Barksdale. 'He seemed to be zeroing on criticisms that the Frontline proposal was simply a way for a new company to get a huge discount on a prime chunk of spectrum by playing the "public safety" card.'"
Some senators were skeptical, especially Ted Stevens of Alaska
Creating a new pipe would nullify his "clogged tubes" argument against net neutrality!
This message printed on 100% post-consumer recycled electrons.
Shhh don't tell him about the invisible tubes in the sky...
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
I think they meant the third Tube, not the third pipe.
It takes one to know one, Senator.
Just because you weren't offered a piece of the action this time is no reason to get all snippy^Wtesty about it.
...to install their first WAP on an uninhabited Alaskan island.
Wireless flea and tick control? Sweet.
Which section of Public Safety? 9?
Before flaming this post based on the subject line, read this article and this one, which are about studies demonstrating the mechanism for learning disability caused by exposure to 700MHz RF fields.
While the facts are true that most elected leaders have not received the majority of their constituent's votes, they are still the elected leader and thus have the right to speak for their country.
Those who do not use their voice in democracy can not complain when democracy does not speak their voice.
What I really want to know is why, up till 20 or so years back were there not these auctions? I mean, who died and made the radio spectrum a commodity the FCC owns and can auction off? I do recal them regulating the spectrum back when, I do not recall them selling it...
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Why is it people can't stop making fun of Ted Stevens? Sure, he made a poorly worded analogy. Big deal - the internet had been compared to plumbing before, would you like to rag on these guys too?
What I find most disgusting though is even though this one event seems ingrained in geek memory, these same geeks conveniently forget when Ted Stevens came out on our side. Personally, I think Americans would be better off if you had more politicians like him in office.
"Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
I wouldn't mind some 700Mhz bandwidth for PUBLIC use of the PUBLIC airwaves. Might as well throw LPFM in just because my voice doesn't count! -- off to the interwebs!
"Those who do not use their voice in democracy can not complain when democracy does not speak their voice."
Of course they can. It's a masturbatory exercise, but they have all the rights everyone else has.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yes, then we could have more billion dollar bridges to nowhere.
You must be joking... Someone actually implied that Ted Stevens was anything but a corrupt, arrogant, senile jack-ass. This is the man who threatened to resign from the Senate if they took any bit of money from his stupid bridge to nowhere and used it for Katrina aid. I only wish they had took money and he had gone back to Alaska to bask in his own love. (No I don't need to give references for all the stupid things he did, google it.)
I like that George Bush encourages community service. It doesn't mean I want him to be my president. Same thing applies to Teddy Stevens.
OH be fair... its not a billion dollars! It's only $315 Million... To serve a total of 9,000 people.
You're right. The Jon would never dump on Democrats.
Not a typewriter
He seemed to be zeroing on criticisms that the Frontline proposal was simply a way for a new company to get a huge discount on a prime chunk of spectrum by playing the "public safety" card.
"Playin' the public safety card is our baby", Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)was later heard to exhort.
Why not make it a contract sort of deal instead of an auction. If the government was really interested in serving the public, they would force companies to come up with proposals and prototypes of what they would do with the spectrum and the best concept wins the spectrum in the form of a contract. The auction has no guarantees that the spectrum will be used in an efficient or "for the better of the public" manner. In fact, it is more likely that it will just turn into another form of high end real estate and monopolization tool than anything else.
Which just goes to show you, the 'third pipe' is actually Congress and is planted firmly up our collective asses.
(Yup, you needed that mental image)
agreed. Some people here have played too much sim city. They think towns and industry just happen to show up when there are no roads or transportation to it. Its actually really embaressing to read so many people rant on someone they obviously know little about. And I'm siding with ted here from my understanding of it. I'm not an expert on how this process has worked in the past (and niether do most of you), but it looks to me like giving out 12 MHz to the highest bidder will just have too many issues with it- and as Ted says, it looks like they're just trying to give the person with the deepest pockets the highest stake- and then give them a discount for it on top of that. How is that fair and competitive?
The most ironic part is that for all everyone makes fun of him, the internet is, in fact, mostly made up of a series of tubes.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Yeah. I'll risk the karma...
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
That wasn't a bridge to nowhere, that was a bridge that would have greatly increased the value of land owned by Alaska's other Republican Senator and by her father, Alaska's Republican governor.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
What happens when, in the mysterious future, a new and important use is found for a particular slice of airwaves that have already been sold off? Will it be necessary to go to the Supreme Court to get a ruling that lets the government declare "eminent domain" and force the owner to sell it back? Better to lease it and still get some money out of it but retain ownership and control.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Who is the highest ranking thub?
I believe it's clear that Senator Ted Stevens should not be on any committees involving technology.
The man needs an education.
I've dealt with clients like him. They think they understand something and get offended when you try to explain it properly.
It's all a series of AIRS Ted!
They're using their grammar skills there.
How is taking some of the spectrum that is currently devoted to public safety, "Playing the public safety card"?
It used to be more of a first-come-first-serve deal, with lots of winking and nodding and such.
It's better that it be a publicly visible auction, to be honest.
Imagine trying to play Jet Set Willy on a 700MHz Spectrum!
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Presumably, 22 MHz is more valuable than is 10 MHz. So the price will be higher in auction. Hence it's not a free 12 MHz, so much as an auction for 10 MHz full use and 12 MHz of rare public safety use.
That's pretty easy. When the great cellular build out was in place in the mid 1980's, the FCC wanted to make sure that there was service in rural areas, and not just heavily populated urban sites. Once companies figured out the extortionate roaming fees that were available (god, I remember when you had to pay $5/day just to sign on to the service, and then had to pay $1.50-$2.00 a minute for each call), they wanted the rights to service. The FCC, in addition to seeing this as a cash grab I'm sure, rationalized the decision by deciding that auctions for spectrum would ensure that firms would build out as rapidly as possible, to recoup their investment, and thus ensure service would be available.
As I recall, the lawyers made tons of money (as usual) by producing boiler plate proposals for would be bidders (you had to qualify technically to have your bid accepted into the auction). IIRC, in some cases where the owners expected heavy traffic (like, say I-75 through northern Ohio - not many people live there but tons of trucks go through, plus a lot of car traffic going to Florida), up to 600 bids would be received.
What was once true, is no longer so
I don't want any significant long term changes made till Bush is out of office and Ron Paul is sitting in that chair with a pen. Here's a scary concept: Congress realizes NOTHING but good clean bills are going to get past this guy and they might clean up their act! It would be unprecedented in modern history.
On topic, just let the regulation of this spectrum expire and make it public with transmission power caps. Monopoly discourages innovation. Private spectrum without failure always comes up with very innovative spectrum sharing technologies, while the regulated spectrum technology stagnates.
Please someone tell me why "Pipes" is an acceptable metaphor, but "Tubes" are not.
We make fun of Sen. Stevens because he's a raging idiot that somehow got elected to public office. It's not about his party (for some of us), or his one most popular gaff (though that certainly brought him to everyone's attention).
The man's famous for rants about nonsense and rambling tirades that barely manage to stick to English grammar. I would make a horrible senator, but even I would be better than Stevens.
This is the real reason why the FCC and Congress are pushing for HDTV. They see the Billions of dollars that it could bring in in profit. A newspaper article I came across back in the late 90's, when HDTV was suppose to go live and SDTV was suppose to be shutoff in 2001, had an estimate of $4.2 Billion USD that the SDTV spectrum would go for at that time. It's probably a lot higher now.
So, to MPAA, RIAA, NASCAR, NFL, NBA, ABL, NHL, etc. all want HDTV so they can control what you can watch, how you watch it, what you watch it on, etc; and the US Gov't wants HDTV so they can make billions of dollars in pure profit.
I'm not saying that we couldn't use the SDTV more effectively (or even AM/FM frequencies for that matter); but this is not something that is in the consumer/customer's interest. It's all $$ motivated.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
Is either make it all public domain like the 802.11B & G frequencies. Or at least encourage competition, by splitting it into 3-6 parts and requiring seperate companies to operate them. This is a very important piece of emf that has not be available in 50 years and will allow real wireless internet city by city through walls, I hope we don't allow Verizons to hog it and sell it back to us for unreasonable prices!
a) The money goes to Alaska and
b) They put his name on it. The "Ted Stevens International Airport" in Anchorage comes to mind.
Personally, I think we need a bunch fewer Senators like Stevens, although I don't think he's much different from the others, just a bit better at it. Lord knows he has been in office long enough. /end rant. By disclosure, I live in Alaska.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'd like to bid $1, Bob.
I'll tell you the reason why public safety frequencies should remain dedicated to public safety:
There will be businesses and people who will be annoyed if they are knocked off the air because of an emergency. What happens if a cell-phone co. buys those frequencies, and they are commandeered for public safety right when everyone is trying to call people because it's an emergency?
I accept that sometimes TV stations have to switch to all-weather when a tornado watch is on. Nonetheless, I get annoyed by this neccesity when I'm nowhere near the area needing the intense watch.
"Amber Alerts" are sometimes counted as emergencies. What business wants to be knocked off the air simply because a kid has gone missing?
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney