What spark will ignite companies to bypass the wireless broadband providers choke hold? It's time to focus our national resources (in this case bandwidth) on innovating high speed internet for the entire nation. All parts of America need some good "old fashioned" free information internet. It can be started with government subsidies, some strong legislation, and dozens of innovative companies. The excuses for segregation or coloring data because it's voice or SMS text are simply ludicrous. The typical usage of our spectrum is atrociously inefficient and under utilized. In addition the excuses for locking down the EM spectrum transmission frequencies to narrow channels is equally illogical.
The Excuses:
- A spokesperson from T-Mobile "Our goal is to provide an optimal wireless experience for our entire customer base, and if it's determined that a customer's use of a third-party application may lessen this experience for our other customers, we will take the necessary precautions to protect and maintain an excellent customer experience on our network," a company spokeswoman said by email.
- AT&T responding to Skype's petition to open things up "When one wireless user has a less efficient handset than the rest of the network, the entire network suffers. By subjecting all wireless users to the experimentation of the few subscribers interested in alternative devices, application of [such] connection rules to the wireless world acts to the detriment of all users."
That's it? That's the best they can come up with? Those are the type of arguments holding America back from hi speed wireless broadband. If I could grow more hair to pull out I would. Does anyone actually believe these ill conceived comments? At the very least our big telecom corporations need some better spin doctors and marketeers. Can anyone "in power" do something about it? Unfortunately it may be some time before our legislators catch up with our growing demands for technology and ubiquitous hi speed internet for all devices.
For anyone else interested in this topic I highly suggest the following pertinent (and more knowledgeable) articles:
- What Is An "Aggressive Tech Agenda"?
- More On Open Spectrum
- Open Spectrum is Good Policy
- Google's Brilliant Proposal by Tom Evslin
- A letter from Google to the Federal Communications Commission
- More on Frequency Regulation - It Matters by Tom Evslin
- Open Mobile Internet Now!
- National Broadband Plan? Dream Big, Feds, Very Big
- Net Neutrality Advocates Call For Fast, Universal Access To The Net
- Apply Net Neutrality to Skype on Smartphones, Group Asks Feds