Verizon wants a federal appeals court to overturn the FCC's open access requirements for next year's 700MHz spectrum auction.
I been been following with great interest the FCC's plan to open up spectrum at 700 MHz for auction and public safety following the discontinuation of over-the-air analog TV signals in 2009. The licensed spectrum having better penetration than cellular phones means that consumers in the States will get that fabled third pipe for internet access (in addition to DSL and cable). This will hopefully provide far more competition and lower prices, and make high speed internet available to a broader cross section of Americans. Including actually, where I used to live in Michigan. The FCC has been considering for sometime now the rules for the auction and exactly what they will be selling. They were presented with four "open" requests. The FCC was asked to require that the successful bidder allow open leasing (any company could lease the spectrum wholesale for innovative use), open networks, open devices, and open applications. These rules would mean that you could sign up for service and use whatever programs or devices to connect with it, so long as they are compatible, similar to how WiFi is now. The FCC decided to mandate open device access and application use, but declined the other two. However, the telecom industry is very interested in preventing these rules from happening for a number of reasons. For one, any additional pipe into the home is another source of competition, something any monopoly provider would like to avoid. In addition, the company that has now filed a lawsuit aginst the FCC to enjoin them from implementing the regulations has a history of forcing customers to use only Verizon provided equipment on their wireless network and limiting applications to ones they specifically approve of (and charge for). Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. It seems to me AT&T (Ma Bell) claimed that customers should only be allowed to rent a telephone from them. We all know what a disaster it was when they were forced to allow customers to buy their own... Given the sorry state of broadband in the US, here's to hoping Verizon loses. I ran out to the Mill Creek ravine the other night. It's getting colder here and so I actually had to use sweats for what they were originally intended for. Once I got going and my blister numbed up though, I found it was a remarkably pleasant run. The Mill Creek is buried in a little used park somewhat in the center of the city, and so I didn't see any other people in the immediate vicinity. With a splash of color starting to hit the trees, and spectacular view of the downtown over Saskatchewan Drive, I had a good time.Blogged with Flock
Tags: wirelessinternet, running, Edmonton, FCC