This sounds like another threat to our spectrum. Hams really need to start using 900 MHz and above before the next edition of ham radio history is titled 2 Meters and Up instead of 200 Meters and Down…….Dan
The Washington Post reports that the FCC recently submitted a proposal to create super Wi-Fi networks across the country that would enable users to make calls or surf the Internet for free. Although the wireless industry has launched a strong lobbying effort to convince policymakers to reconsider the idea, companies such as Google and Microsoft are campaigning for the proposal, saying that it will spark an explosion of innovations that will benefit most Americans. “For a casual user of the Web, perhaps this could replace carrier service,” says analyst Jeffrey Silva. “Because it is more plentiful and there is no price tag, it could have a real appeal to some people.” The airwaves the FCC wants to use for the public Wi-Fi networks would be much more powerful than conventional Wi-Fi networks, but because the major wireless carriers own much more spectrum, their networks would still be much more robust. It also would take several years to set up. “Freeing up unlicensed spectrum is a vibrantly free-market approach that offers low barriers to entry to innovators developing the technologies of the future and benefits consumers,” says FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.
Maxim says
Dan this story was misreported and now has been widely criticized. The reporter tried to clarify but dug herself a bigger hole. She conflated several FCC proceedings together that are not new and one of them was already allocated years ago.
The spectrum belongs to the public and it’s not inconceivable that the govt might decide somebody else could make more profitable use of it than hams. Whether they actually would use it is another matter. Some promised big markets and technologies got spectrum but never materialized their benefits.