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A Case Against Further Government Spectrum Auctions
dkatana points out an article arguing that the governments should stop further auctions of 4G spectrum because it reduces infrastructure investment from carriers and makes net neutrality more difficult to regulate. Quoting:
The FCC recently raised more than $34 billion for six blocks of airwaves, totaling 65 megahertz of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is good news for the treasury coffers, but government auctions threaten the ability of the FCC and similar agencies to manage the spectrum, impose net neutrality rules, and allow new businesses to compete.
Carriers and internet companies who won the auction might believe the spectrum is theirs to do as they please, blocking access or charging huge fees to others. Issues such as speed throttling and preferential access come to mind. If governments insist in auctions of the newly available frequencies, it could hurt the industry and potentially destroy any possibility of negotiating universal access and net neutrality.
Carriers and internet companies who won the auction might believe the spectrum is theirs to do as they please, blocking access or charging huge fees to others. Issues such as speed throttling and preferential access come to mind. If governments insist in auctions of the newly available frequencies, it could hurt the industry and potentially destroy any possibility of negotiating universal access and net neutrality.
I tried. But somehow I got dumped here. Soulskill, can you at least check the links on your own goddamned web site?
Back on track - so the government is just selling the spectrum without any preconditions, rules, regulations? The FCC? Whose regulations on simple things spans tens of pages of dense type?
Really?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
(that's what zoning is for).
No, that is NOT what zoning is for. Zoning exists to keep poor black people out of rich white neighborhoods. In any area, there is a spectrum of jobs available, and even wealthy areas have plenty of jobs for poor people (maids, gardeners, gas station attendants, etc.). Without government imposed zoning, someone will come along and build affordable, high density housing for those people, so they can live nearby, and even send their kids to local schools. But with zoning laws, they will live on the other side of town like they supposed to, and spend two hours on public transit to get to their job.