- The 21st Century is
evolving into an "age of wireless"
- People want and need
bandwidth -- in far more places than we can ever run fiber or copper
- Expectation of constant
access to help, (Hence, requirement for mandatory E-911 on cell phones)
constant connectivity, constant availability
- Exponential growth in use
of devices that use radio signals -- including cell phones, pagers,
even watches that synchronize to WWVB!
- In this wireless age, the
ability to innovate and to engage in many businesses depends on access
to an unusual, abstract sort of "turf" known as "spectrum"
- Many argue that the
current regime has created artificial scarcity, "haves," and
"have-nots"... and is hindering progress
- Congress has now
"balanced" tax cuts with revenue from sales of scarce spectrum
- As
large corporations buy and aggregate spectrum, small operators are
literally in danger of becoming "spectrum sharecroppers" -- or
"spectrum serfs"
- It
therefore behooves us to take a step back and ask: What is this "turf,"
really? How was it "created?" How can it be shared? Are the economic
and political problems the result of poor design?
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