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White House Pledges $400M To Back Speedier 5G Wireless Networks (fortune.com)
The Obama Administration has announced a new funding initiative to ensure the United States maintains its leadership in the mobile technology space. For this, it will spend over $400 million on large-scale test platforms led by National Science Foundation with an aim to develop and advance wireless technology to 5G and beyond. Fortune reports: To be sure, the private sector has also been getting smarter and better organized for 5G this year and the new Obama effort will be conducted in conjunction with a bevy of technology and telecommunications partners. All four major wireless carriers, AT&T, Verizon Communications, Sprint, and T-Mobile, are participating. Tech companies on board include Intel, Juniper Networks, Qualcomm, and Nokia. Notably, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are missing from the list. "These super-fast, ultra-low latency, high-capacity networks will enable breakthrough applications for consumers, smart cities, and the Internet of Things that cannot even be imagined today," the White House said in a statement. The report adds: The transition to the next generation standard for wireless networks, so-called 5G, has so far been fraught with confusion, complications, and even some contradictions. But in a few years, when 5G gear sending data at up to 100 times the speed of current networks is commonplace, people may remember July 2016 as a major turning point. The private sector has offered mixed messages about when 5G will be available for regular people and just what it will be used for. Without many standards yet agreed upon, some predicted 5G would be ready starting next year, but others said not until 2020 or later. Some wanted to use it to speed up smartphone connections, while others said it was better suited to improve home and business Internet connections or to collect data from smart devices in the "Internet of Things."
The speeds will increase, but the old dinosaurs won't let go of their silly data caps.
-SR
Translation: We don't know, what we don't know.
Who is actually asking for this? As it stands, current cellular networks are capable of doing everyone a person could reasonably need, short of downloading 4k uncompressed bukake porn.
Oh wait, that's right. Networks want to make it as easy as possible for you to blow through your absurdly and arbitrarily tiny data quotas. They need to get their lobbyist money somehow, so they can convince the gov't that even those caps are too large.
Like in First World Nations, where it's $20 a month with no data cap and 20 Gbps Internet, not US $300 with a cap and 20 Mbps Internet.
You know, like in a real country.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Still waiting for these mythical unicorns they keep touting. But then they've barely implemented what was envisioned 40 years ago: jet packs, flying cars, cities on the moon....Angry Birds via 5G pales in comparison...
I need a bigger data cap.
Try it! Library of Babel
Yet another subsidy to the telecoms to not deliver what they promise, and then go completely ignored by the government.
Sincerely,
my bi-directional 45Mbit access from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that should have been available 10 years ago according to the Act, and the hundreds of billions of dollars paid in the form of excise taxes by the public.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
The government is giving away money to its fat cat friends that will enjoy a nice cabinet position when the next president opens her little laundromat.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Hilary takes 30% kickbacks for spending crony money from the government, in case you wondered what her cut was. So in this case she would get $120 million if she were the one doing this. *
* Based on numbers from Bill's salary ($16.5 million) as a board member from a university that got grants from state department of $55 million. There was a non-profit in the middle so they could claim it was clean, but owner of the non-profit and university paying Bill was the same guy. In addition to being bad at email server security, she doesn't understand how to launder money over more than 1 person.
Strangely, telecoms don't even make the top 20 for Hillary.
You're correct about the banks though. They are, by far, #1 for her. But I'm sure she'll regulate the shit out of them once they buy her the election.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Why don't they collect on the broadband promises that never materialized from the last round of subsidies before giving away another half billion dollars? Oh, right, never mind. They're just bribing people with our own money and trying to make it sound like a good thing, knowing that most people won't be able to call them on it.
Maybe this time it'll be different? I wish I could believe that.
White house pledges 400m to cell carriers profit margins
is it really socialism when its really just a gift to friendly billionaires
> because data collection from "Internet of Things!!!!"
The only reason we need 5g speeds to collect data from myriad home devices is because each one is feeding audio/video back to the NSA.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I doubt that they make the top 20 for anyone...
Most telecoms prefer to buy congressmen anyway - they're far cheaper, and they get more done (from a 'subsidize-and-monetize-me point of view, anyway).
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
True, Hillary goes for bigger fish.
Also, "regulating the shit out of companies" is one of the prime mechanisms for crony capitalism, so that's in character.
right, mexican
This is *not* a politically-motivated post, as it should not be, but really? 5G? Who said that (supposedly "my") government could spend $400M of *my* money (from taxes) to give the poor, starving cell carriers another, faster product to gouge consumers with? There are any number of better ways to spend $400M in the USA today. Its pretty disgusting.
this time around, those funds will come with some concrete conditions before they get paid out.
I will provide you with X amount of funding IFF you can show you have added Y amount of coverage over Z amount of time. Fail to meet those
obligations will require you to pay back any funding you receive.
While we're at it, perhaps we could add some riders on there as well.
BEFORE we give you any additional funding, you need to demonstrate why we should give a Telecom who makes Billions of dollars every quarter any taxpayer money at all. ( Considering what you did with the previous funds we provided for you )
In addition, we should talk about those silly data caps, high prices, throttling and your reluctance to embrace Network Neutrality before writing you that check.
You can already easily exceed your average data-cap with 3g.. why will more speed be so much better?
How about you get my parents something better than 1.5MB DSL first. More than 2 miles from Walmart and you are in the 3rd world :(
Really, how is she actually a presidential candidate?
Because the DNC are a corrupt cabal who have selected her as their next President, and a majority of the Democratic voters (especially ones in the South) are stupid enough to buy her bullshit. Many of them even actually believe that it's a good idea to elect someone who's visibly corrupt because they think this will translate into "getting things done" in Washington for them somehow, or that this is necessary for that candidate to win (even though Bernie managed to do quite well without any Wall Street money at all). Honestly, there's no end to the rationalizations Democratic voters will come up with to defend their choice to vote for the candidate who they were told to vote for.
Is President Dubya writing the headlines now?
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Why is R. Gov flushing 400 Mil away to the cellular common carriers that are making money hand over fist, providing shit customer service, exist as a protected duopoly, shall I go on and on. "Verizon and AT&T are participating...." what about emerging 5g companies with new ideas or whatever....is there something broken with how Golden Fleece is handed out to the Companies that need it the LEAST. The points made about Data Caps are well taken, the law makers should not had over a cent to any company imposing data caps.