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FCC Pitches Free, Bowdlerized Wireless Internet Access

Posted by timothy on from the so-really-we-don't-need-much-bandwidth dept.

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.

9 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. eww by norkakn · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fuck that.

  2. Email the FCC! by TRAyres · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  3. Wrong Wrong Wrong by tweak13 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:50 kHz spectrum at 25 MHz? by jcgf · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

  5. Re:50 kHz spectrum at 25 MHz? by Gat0r30y · · Score: 4, Informative

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin scheduled a vote on rules for another major spectrum auction, one that would encompass 25 megahertz in the 2155-2180 MHz advanced wireless services band and require the winning bidder to offer free broadband service under an aggressive build-out schedule. The article linked above isn't nearly as good as this one on the details of what spectrum is actually on the block here
    --
    Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
  6. Re:Fixed by jejones · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  7. Re:Obscene Defined by supersat · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  8. Re:Obscenity has a clear meaning by 680x0 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Never did anybody other than retarded atheists with nothing else to do claim that christians or jews say the earth is 6000 years old.
    Tell that to Archbishop Ussher who, based on following begats and ages listed in Genesis, and other Biblical and historical information, decided that the universe was created nightfall preceding Sunday October 23, 4004 BC, in the proleptic Julian calendar.
  9. Re:Obscene is easy, its called fun by x69 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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