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.'"

Comments

Health concerns

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Health concerns

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it does work the same way; RF exposure outcome is dose-dependant. Though their main point (in the second article) was that the effect that can kill you (RF-induced heating) is different from the effect that they observe (neurons are more excitable).

I would not worry too much, however, since the experimental conditions are quite different from those inside your brain. If you read the article, you will notice that even a thin 1 mm layer of liquid shields the cells rather nicely. (and your hippocampus is shielded by over 100 mm of blood, CSF, and bone. Also, 50 V/m RF strengths are virtually never encountered in real life; usually something on the order of mV/m tops.

Of course, you never know if the effects are additive over a long period of time. If in doubt, use a tinfoil hat (remember to use thick metal foil, wrap as much of your body as you can, and actually ground it, or it's useless (use 1MOhm resistor in line or you might electrocute yourself).

Re:We should really all stop ragging on Ted Steven

[unitron]

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.