Free Wireless Band Gets FCC OK

narramissic writes "Last month the FCC conducted tests to determine whether mobile devices using a new US radio band (2,155 to 2,175 MHz) with free wireless service would cause significant interference with cell phones using a nearby band. Now, the results are in and in a report released Friday, the FCC concluded that 'the analysis shows that an AWS-1 and AWS-3 device operating in close proximity does not necessarily result in interference.' Still, T-Mobile accuses the FCC of basing its conclusions on new assumptions that weren't used when the tests took place. But at least one party is happy: M2Z praised the report, saying 'There is no longer any need for American consumers, the public interest and the FCC's regulatory process to be held hostage as it has been for the last five months by incumbent carriers... who have used unfounded claims of interference to disguise their intent to prevent the introduction of new broadband competition in the AWS-3 band.'"

Comments

Any competition is good but..

[aceofspades1217]

All competition is good but really its not really that great. Their internet will be censored and it will only be 300kb/s. It certainly can't hurt but really there is two sides to this story. It really wouldn't be worth the hassle for this somewhat mediocre internet if it causes interference with cell phones.

Re:Any competition is good but..

[mrsteveman1]

Can't hurt? Yes, it can.

We're talking about a government approved wireless network they want to reach 95% of the country, while leaving one specific kind of content behind. This is more than just competition, this is a significant force in the market and quite frankly, a transparent attempt to reduce the availability of ONLY porn to a large percentage of the population.

It's also quite unconstitutional for the government to be granting one company the right to censor users while the government profits from that censorship. They want people to look the other way because "it's free", but it isn't free.

This is an ad-supported network, so it isn't free for users at all. I'm still paying for it by viewing those ads. And to accomplish this they are either doing DPI, or targeting by location to deliver ads by modifying traffic (even worse than censoring), or they will force users to install specific software on the machine to access the network.

None of this is acceptable, especially because of the involvement with the government.

Lobbyists to the rescue!

[elrous0]

Not to worry, poor telecommunications giants! Lobbyman is here to protect you! The evil FCC got you down? No problem, Lobbyman will buy off Congress to step in an save your gravy train! Sure Lobbyman is expensive, but then a great hero always is. So let the money flow and let the consumer be screwed!