Word: fcc
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...might not sound like the sexiest deal, but today the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) will auction off rights to the 700 MHz band of wireless spectrum - a sale that has the potential to create a seismic shift in the telecommunications landscape. The powerful band of prime cross-country airwaves, which is currently being used for analog TV broadcasts, is due to free up by February 2009 when TV goes fully digital. So, if ever a new telecom player were to carve out a piece of the lucrative nationwide wireless pie, now would be the time. "This is the last auction...
Once TV broadcasters have vacated the 700 MHz band for more efficient digital signals, which take up less bandwidth, the FCC will repurpose the surplus analog spectrum for wireless devices. The auction consists of five blocks of licenses to be sold off in pieces - ranging from rights to various regional networks to sprawling nationwide ones - each set at a minimum bid. The process could take weeks or even months and is likely to pull in about $15 or $20 billion for the federal government. Carriers wishing to offer new wireless services are currently running into spectrum shortages - one reason...
Regardless of who ultimately wins, the auction has already prompted a serious restructuring of the way wireless carriers offer services to their customers. In August, the FCC backed Google's crusade (spawned by a paper written by Tim Wu for the New America Foundation calling for open networks) and mandated that the auction's largest available spectrum, the C block, be an open network if the bid reached at least $4.6 billion. (Some analysts predict Google will bid just enough to trigger the open-network provision, and no more.) That would mean customers could use any wireless device, handset...
...raises some difficult questions. In a changing media landscape dominated by the all-inclusive Internet, should radio stations encourage the encroachment of other media like newspapers and television? Or should there be a separation between the three? Does it even matter?Traditionally, our old friend the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has had a hand in regulating monopolies across these three media formats. For decades, it has maintained restrictions prohibiting media conglomerates from owning newspapers, television networks, and radio stations in the same city. But in the past two weeks, Kevin J. Martin, the chairman of the FCC, has come forth...
...reminiscing about seeing Ferlinghetti, I was floored when I received three angry calls in a row objecting to the obscenity of the material I had just played. I dismissed their complaints as the missives of crotchety old people, until the third caller threatened to write to the FCC. Suddenly, these callers weren’t just annoyances but serious threats. I hurriedly faded down Ferlinghetti’s “Junkman’s Obbligato” just as I heard him go on about “drying our drawers / on garbage fires / patches on our asses...