Slashdot Mirror
Is Microsoft Hustling Us With 'White Spaces'? (wired.com)
rgh02 writes:
Microsoft recently announced their plan to deploy unused television airwaves to solve the digital divide in America. And while the media painted this effort as a noble one, at Backchannel, Susan Crawford reveals the truth: "Microsoft's plans aren't really about consumer internet access, don't actually focus on rural areas, and aren't targeted at the US -- except for political purposes." So what is Microsoft really up to?
The article's author believes Microsoft's real game is "to be the soup-to-nuts provider of Internet of Things devices, software, and consulting services to zillions of local and national governments around the world. Need to use energy more efficiently, manage your traffic lights, target preventative maintenance, and optimize your public transport -- but you're a local government with limited resources and competence? Call Microsoft."
The article argues Microsoft wants to bypass mobile data carriers who "will want a pound of flesh -- a percentage -- in exchange for shipping data generated by Microsoft devices from Point A to Point B... [I]n many places, they are the only ones allowed to use airwave frequencies -- spectrum -- under licenses from local governments for which they have paid hundreds of millions of dollars."
The article's author believes Microsoft's real game is "to be the soup-to-nuts provider of Internet of Things devices, software, and consulting services to zillions of local and national governments around the world. Need to use energy more efficiently, manage your traffic lights, target preventative maintenance, and optimize your public transport -- but you're a local government with limited resources and competence? Call Microsoft."
The article argues Microsoft wants to bypass mobile data carriers who "will want a pound of flesh -- a percentage -- in exchange for shipping data generated by Microsoft devices from Point A to Point B... [I]n many places, they are the only ones allowed to use airwave frequencies -- spectrum -- under licenses from local governments for which they have paid hundreds of millions of dollars."
That's good news: the so-called "internet of things" needed to be knocked back 20 years until society can get a handle on security and accountability. Microsoft is just the organization to provide the necessary retrograde motion.
You do realize that Microsoft brings huge value to enterprises by simplifying the support requirements for a computing environment right? They are popular because of the easy to setup and maintain not because "the wimpy IT and business leaders want a master". FFS, IT departments would be enormous if they had to support a huge heterogeneous set of end point technologies as well as bespoke solutions that required maintenance....let alone the necessary expertise to maintain such systems from a feature set perspective and a security perspective.