Outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing for action in December on a plan to offer free, pornography-free wireless Internet service to all Americans, despite objections from the wireless industry and some consumer groups.
The FCC plans to auction off a chunk of airwaves for the free wireless Internet service. The winning bidder would be required to set aside a quarter of the airwaves for a free Internet service. The winner could establish a paid service that would have a fast wireless Internet connection. The free service could be slower and would be required to filter out pornography and other material not suitable for children.
The plans seems to have some drawbacks, such as how will the free Internet service be paid for? Ads perhaps? A better plan would be to offer free spectrum to small companies offering fast wireless Internet service, so those companies can compete with larger companies who have yet to roll out FAST wireless Internet service to the public. Those big companies are still sitting on large chunks of spectrum that cost them billions of dollars in some case.
If the FCC continues to do business only with large businesses who can afford to pay billions of dollars for spectrum, then the people who need affordable Internet service may never get it.
Anonymous
49 weeks 4 days 6 hours 21 min ago
why free wireless is a bad idea
I can see why wireless Internet service providers wouldn't like this idea since it would hurt their business, and I think it would hurt consumers by eliminating competition. I do think it's a good idea to make the Internet easier to access though. This new wireless service called Clear (http://www.clear.com/?utm_source=bc), for example, is making the Internet much faster and more convenient. They already rolled the service out in Portland and will be expanding in 2009. They make it really simple and affordable for everyone to have super-fast wireless that works practically everywhere.
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