Rural Broadband : here we go again ......

SandRider · Post by **SandRider** » 03 Nov 2008 09:10

FCC votes Tuesday 04 Nov 08 / broadcast white space

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=96487169
http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/200 ... and&st=cse
http://wireless.fcc.gov/outreach/index. ... dband_home

Drunken Idaho · Post by **Drunken Idaho** » 03 Nov 2008 14:17

Hmm, I'm all for it as long as Net Neutrality remains safe.

Post by **Omphalos** » 03 Nov 2008 14:50

Hmmm. I thought all UHF and VHF bandwidth was going to the military.

SandRider · Post by **SandRider** » 05 Nov 2008 01:51

FCC clears Google-backed plan on airwaves use (Reuters)
Posted on Tue Nov 4, 2008 6:07PM EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a plan sought by tech companies like Google Inc and Microsoft Inc to open soon-to-be-vacant television airwaves to new wireless devices.

The five-member FCC voted to open unlicensed pockets of the spectrum known as white space that will become available when U.S. broadcasters are required to move to digital television next year.

Companies like Google and Microsoft, as well as consumer groups, said access to the white space airwaves would encourage innovation in cellular telephones and wireless devices, much as WiFi did.

"Let's hope it's not just Wi-Fi on steroids but Wi-Fi on amphetamines," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said.

FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate dissented in part, saying she preferred a more formal process to deal with interference issues.

Traditional broadcasters such as Walt Disney Inc's ABC, General Electric's NBC, CBS Corp and even country singer Dolly Parton opposed the plan. They said signals sent over that part of the spectrum could cause interference with broadcasts or wireless microphones at live productions.

A broadcasters' group, Maximum Service Television, said the decision "imperils American's television reception in order to satisfy the "free" spectrum demands of Google and Microsoft."

The FCC sided with the tech companies and consumer groups after two rounds of testing the devices. An agency engineering report released several weeks ago said the spectrum could be used without causing harmful interference.

Harold Feld, senior vice president at the consumer group Media Access Project, said the vote will lead to expanded investment in broadband and other technologies.

"Motorola, Google and Microsoft have invested five years and millions of dollars to get this approved," Feld said. "The people that made those decisions are going to show they made good decisions."

The bi-partisan vote by three Republican and two Democratic FCC voting members signals that greater access to white space will move forward regardless of whether Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama wins the presidency, said Ben Scott, policy director of the advocacy group Free Press.

Republicans back white space access as a free-market approach, while Democrats like that it improves affordability and is pro-consumer, Scott said. "No matter who is president, this white space policy will be expanded upon," he said.

The decision "will allow the marketplace to produce new devices and new applications that we can't even imagine today," Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell said.

The order requires both fixed and portable devices to be capable of sensing television stations and wireless microphones and that those devices be registered in an FCC database.

inhuien · Post by **inhuien** » 05 Nov 2008 04:08

The decision "will allow the marketplace to produce new devices and new applications that we can't even imagine today," Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell said.

"Let's hope it's not just Wi-Fi on steroids but Wi-Fi on amphetamines," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said.

What a wonderful insight these qoutes show.

Drunken Idaho · Post by **Drunken Idaho** » 05 Nov 2008 10:27

inhuien wrote:
The decision "will allow the marketplace to produce new devices and new applications that we can't even imagine today," Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell said.

"Let's hope it's not just Wi-Fi on steroids but Wi-Fi on amphetamines," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said.
What a wonderful insight these qoutes show.

Let's hope it's like Wi-Fi on a spice-trip. Prescient internet!!!!

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » 05 Nov 2008 15:00

Oh, wow.. this means I might actually get a broadband connection someday? I'll be able to watch YouTube videos!

Pansyass · Post by **Pansyass** » 17 Dec 2008 12:56

crime.

Mandy wrote:Oh, wow.. this means I might actually get a broadband connection someday? I'll be able to watch YouTube videos!

I thought everyone had access to broadband! I live way out and I have it.

SandRider · Post by **SandRider** » 17 Dec 2008 13:00

Jean Marai wrote:
Mandy wrote:Oh, wow.. this means I might actually get a broadband connection someday? I'll be able to watch YouTube videos!
crime.
I thought everyone had access to broadband! I live way out and I have it.

connected how ? cable ? Verizon landline ? Satellite ? Wireless ?

and what do you define as "Way Out" ?

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 17 Dec 2008 16:12

Jayzus taking the wheel?

Oh....

SandRider · Post by **SandRider** » 17 Dec 2008 19:09

Down ! Down you little monster!

Sit ! Stay !
Stay....

Good Chigger !

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 17 Dec 2008 19:51

Woof?

Robspierre · Post by **Robspierre** » 17 Dec 2008 20:25

Jean Marai wrote:
Mandy wrote:Oh, wow.. this means I might actually get a broadband connection someday? I'll be able to watch YouTube videos!
crime.
I thought everyone had access to broadband! I live way out and I have it.

No, I have DSL which has speeds lower than broadband and I'm 15 miles from the nearest place with broadband and cannot get it. it all depends on if the providers used the money from congress to actually add broadband access to rural areas like they were suppose to or if they fucked off with the money.

Rob

Pansyass · Post by **Pansyass** » 19 Dec 2008 09:23

SandRider wrote:
Jean Marai wrote:
Mandy wrote:Oh, wow.. this means I might actually get a broadband connection someday? I'll be able to watch YouTube videos!
crime.
I thought everyone had access to broadband! I live way out and I have it.
connected how ? cable ? Verizon landline ? Satellite ? Wireless ?

I don't know.

and what do you define as "Way Out" ?

2 thumpers out from the city.

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » 19 Dec 2008 18:50

DSL ends about a mile south of here here, and then starts up again a mile or two north. Florida is weird like that, lots of little rural areas and the trees block a lot of wireless signals. Well, I think it's the tree's fault.