The New National Broadband Plan - Test/Report Your Dead Zone

[Dover]

Home page - http://www.broadband.gov/

The Plan - http://www.broadband.gov/plan/

Broadband Test - http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/

[Dover]

1. Former FCC Chair Hundt says decision to favor Internet over TV was made in '94

Former FCC Chair Hundt says decision to favor Internet over TV was made in '94


In a speech that he described as "confession or admission," former FCC Chair Reed Hundt yesterday told a Columbia University audience that his decision to favor broadband over broadcast goes back to 1994, and that the March 17 National Broadband Plan "will reflect ... the end of the era of trying to maintain over-the-air broadcast as the common medium and the beginning of a very detailed, quite substantive, commitment to having broadband, the son of narrowband, be the common medium,"according to TV News Check. He also said the plan "will have in it a specific pathway to shrinking the amount of spectrum that broadcast will be able to use. In all previous eras, the government has expanded the spectrum for broadcast so as to give it a chance to thrive as it moved from analog to digital. Now, it's going to be moving in reverse." He added that he found it "simply astonishing" that the feds assisted broadcasters through the digital transition last year by subsidizing converter boxes for viewers. "Those people would have been much better off getting a voucher for broadband Internet subscriptions." Watch his entire hourlong speech here.

http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/flash/CBSPlay-append.html?video1=centers/CITI/lunch-speaker_3-11-2010.flv


Broadcasters may have to pay mandatory fees for keeping their spectrum

Broadcasters who decline to turn over spectrum for an upcoming auction may face fees for their decision, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Citing an unnamed source who has seen the National Broadband Plan that will be presented to Congress this week, the fees would be another tactic used by the feds to encourage give back of spectrum for auction. The FCC is looking to shift 500 MHz from traditional broadcast to wireless use (Current, Feb. 8, 2010).

[TexasProgresive]

2. So we rural people are screwn no matter what

How about an initiative to build a nationwide fiber optic system that can carry internet, TV, and telephony. That would be more consistent then over the air.

[Dover]

3. I don't know if I understand it all technically, but I assume digital means satellite only?..n/t

[TexasProgresive]

4. My understanding is that they want to take away

broadcast TV frequencies and sell that bandwidth to Internet providers. This after the broadcasters have invested large amounts of money to change over to HDTV on new frequencies. I'm assuming that the FCC is thinking that the High Speed internet will be broadcasted over the air using the frequencies that are currently used by TV stations. This would be a bit better then satellite internet which is speed and weather limited but the scheme would force everyone everywhere to go to satellite or cable for TV. I don't think that's fair.

My understanding is that 95% of people Britains have access to high speed internet without losing over the air TV- I guess we are just incapable of such things in poor ole America.

[Dover]

5. In other words they are privatizing as well as digitalizing? No more free t.v. ?

So what does that mean for people who bought HDTVs? Are they going to be usable with the new system?


Not sure what all this means for radio either.
For instance, I noticed that the University of Texas is looking to buy some of the last of the lower frequency radio stations in that state recently made available through the FCC or other agency (to all states). Their current radio station is noncommercial (sort of) and going digital (and is high frequency). They are NPR affiliates as well and broadcast many of their products. And I think NPR didn't like the governement sale of the low frequency noncommercial frequencies because they are committed to digital and have complained that the lower frequency channels will interfere with the other stations...which others say is bogus.
I'm told that digital radio and digital t.v. are completely different animals.
These are things I know or have heard, but I don't really understand how all the pieces fit together.

[TexasProgresive]

6. I guess we'll have see how it plays out-n/t