On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Ben McCafferty wrote:

> Basically, the FCC has a stranglehold on frequencies,
> and are still letting archaic technologies have the airwaves here.  For
> example, one of the largest usable segments is consumed for broadcast TV (11
> million users), though 88% of the country's viewers use cable or satellite.

This becomes partly a question of access.  Are we willing to shut out
people who can't afford cable or satellite so that businesses can benefit
from the additional frequencies?  The airwaves are a public trust, and it
can be argued that they should be used to benefit the largest number of
people, not to provide the greatest amount of profit for service
providers.

I'm sure there are a lot of businesses who would prefer to see the
Citizen's Band, Amateur bands, and the unlicensed/scientific use bands
(like 49 Mhz and 2.4 GHz) revoked from the hands of ordinary citizens and
turned into fee-for-use systems like satellite subscription TV, as well.

             _ _
  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)              Ypsilanti, MI
 / _` | | | | | |  +-----------------------------------------------------
| (_| | |_| | | | @ cyberspace.org
 \__, |\__,_|_|_| "To the optimist, the glass is half full.  To the
 |___/             pessimist, the glass is half empty.  To the engineer,
                   the glass is twice as big as it needs to be."