Spectrum of Greed

Scary!!

Several of what I am beginning to think of as online tabloids (though many are reputable mainstream publication houses) seem to be nothing more than mouthpieces for a few fear mongers and confusion artists (have I coined a new profession here?) who are fixated on the dire consequences sure to overtake us when the switchover to DTV occurs.  And they obsess about this minutia at a time when our economy is in freefall and we have a congress that wants to play partisan instead of fixing the mess they created to start with.  Why would they be so fixated on such a small percentage of the American people for such an inconsequential issue as the boob tube? (continue reading…)

The Block layout for 700 hz

In a document released last week, the FCC lists at the very bottom of page six of the license list two line items for Block C licenses - the only two in the document, and they are assigned to Triad 700, LLC.  Both are listed under file #3382992.  While Verizon won the bid for the class C block in March, it appears that the FCC is allowing Verizon to sub-lease their licenses back to another vendor.  That would be very handy to a company that doesn’t really need to use the bandwidth themselves, but just want to make sure that they can control how it will be used. (continue reading…)

FUBAR Communications Commission (according to Lessig?)

While manufacturing, finance, construction, real estate and most other industries are awash in red ink and reeling from Ponzi scheme’s and bad financial decisions, there is one place where currency is flowing against the tide - wireless telecom.

How could this be? Well, it all started back during the primary election excitement in the first few months of 2008. While Oprah and the country were trying to determine who would be the Democratic and Republican front runners, the FCC was doing what it does best, moving stealthily behind the headlines, inviting a few close friends in, and asking them just how much they would be willing to pay for the exclusive rights to some radio spectrum that they were taking away from the TV stations because they didn’t need it anymore. (continue reading…)