Slashdot Mirror
FCC Pitches Free, Bowdlerized Wireless Internet Access
Aidtopia writes "FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing auctioning off an unused part of the 25 MHz spectrum on the condition that the winner provide free wireless Internet access. The proposal sets coverage targets that ramp up to 95% of the population within 10 years. The catch: the provider must filter out obscene content." I wonder what definition of "obscene" the FCC would like to use.
Fuck that.
Actually, they misspelled bowdlerized.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
No, he misspelled Bowdlerized.
For example, your original potty-mouthed post might be offensive to sensitive ears, and I've therefore taken the liberty...
Either that, or I missed the ironic possibility of your post; that you, like me, regard the act of bowdlerization as an even greater offense than the use of the word "bastard". In which case, IHBT, IHL, and I'll HAND :)
I can't give a definition, but I'll know it when I see it!
What's interesting is that, by obscenity laws, porn would be fine. It really would not be hard for a provider to say "When we're made aware of material that's clearly obscene or illegal, we'll take technological steps to filter it."
But like pirate radio, they will never be able to stop it.
On the FCC front page, there is a link to all the members of the board, and their emails.
I say we email them.
Lets turn the ./ effect upon our government, and see if maybe, just maybe, we can convince them not to make the same dumb ass mistakes they make every 30 years trying to censor new formats.
This isn't the 25MHz spectrum, it's a 25MHz block of the 2.1GHz spectrum. Realizing that makes this story make a whole lot more sense. There's no possible way this would work in the HF range.
I agree with your concern. If we assume an S/N ratio of 20db (about 3 S units on my HF rig or noise at S6 and signal at S9 which I consider a good copy) then Shannon-Hartley's theorem says that they will get at best 333kbps. I used the example calculation #1 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theorem and just substituted 50kc for 4kc to get this.
Anyone disagree?
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
Sure. "s/obscene/dissenting/g" means "everywhere you see 'obscene', substitute 'dissenting'". It's the syntax of the Unix ed text editor; see this page for details.
TV and radio are actually held to a higher standard for most of the day: they can't broadcast "indecent" material from 6 AM to 10 PM. In practice, most broadcasters choose not to broadcast "indecent" material at all, possibly for fear of a public outcry or advertisers backing out. Obscenity was defined by the Supreme Court in Miller v. California, and is a very tough threshold to meet. Lots of laws prohibit obscene speech, and I'm fairly certain there's a law that prohibits obscene speech from being transmitted on a licensed channel. The FCC is merely upholding the law.
I think the idea is that you buy the wireless spectrum to use it for other things, but are required to provide free internet on part of that spectrum IN ADDITION to whatever your other business plans are.
--Rachel
It's not at the 25 MHz frequency.. It's a 25MHz wide channel in the 2.x GHz frequency.. The /. article was misleading..
It would be almost useless due to noise at 25 MHz frequency..
-G
802.11b only uses 21mhz of the 2.4ghz spectrum.
This auction is for 25mhz worth of the 2.1ghz spectrum, which is More bandwidth, AND in a less crowded portion of the spectrum, which should mean less interference. Ok, granted, I don't know what else uses 2.1ghz currently, but I *do* know how much crap spews out in the 2.4ghz range, and I think its a safe bet to say 2.1ghz won't be as crowded.
If 10mbps isn't fast enough for porn, perhaps you should look to DVDs or magazines instead of using the internet