The Open MIC Blog

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the use of broadband wireless devices in the “white space” radio spectrum that will be freed up when U.S. television broadcasters switch from analog to digital transmission in February 2009.  Commission chairman Richard Martin says opening the white spaces "will allow for the creation of a WiFi on steroids. It has the potential to improve wireless broadband connectivity and inspire an ever-widening array of new Internet based products and services for consumers."

Over a hundred million Americans have high-speed Internet access. Most of them likely assume that, in return for paying a hefty monthly fee, they can use their Internet service privately, for whatever purpose they want, as long as it’s legal. They’d be wrong.On Friday, for example, a bi-partisan majority of the Federal Communications Commission ordered Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, to stop blocking Internet access for some of its subscribers and "secretly degrading” their service.

A smaller piece of a much bigger pie.  That’s the very simple, but very powerful, thinking behind much of the latest news in wireless communications in the U.S.   It’s helping to create a media environment that’s potentially much more open, diverse and innovative – which would be good news for consumers as well as investors in wireless stocks.

In an era when customer satisfaction is the recurring mantra of virtually every business guru, Internet Service Providers don’t seem to believe that their customers – as well as investors, regulators and legislators – will pay heed to reports that the companies are not living up to advertised promises of virtually unlimited bandwidth, never mind allegations that they are also messing about with American rights to freedom of expression and freedom of choice.

“Wow,” I thought.   Here’s the network neutrality debate in microcosm, right in my little corner of the world.   And it’s preventing me from watching the New York Yankees opening game. I began to wonder who among my neighbors were the greedy, bandwidth-hungry violators. The elderly lady in 14H?  That young couple on the floor above, with the toddler?  Maybe that teenager in 11H?  

This week’s announcement by the Federal Communications Commission of winners in the much-ballyhooed 700MHz radio spectrum auction confirmed that the journey on the path of openness is not – and will not be - a simple one.

Triggering of the open access provisions is great news: it theoretically means that a wireless provider must provide a mobile Internet where consumers connect with phones and digital assistants of their choice, employing applications they consider important– not just the hardware and controlled service offerings of cell phone providers.  

It’s some of the most valuable spectrum ever to be made available to the commercial wireless industry - the communications equivalent of “beachfront property." The auction could tell us a lot about the future direction of wireless in America  and just how “open” or “closed” the mobile Internet will be.

Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast Corp., gets generally high marks from his colleagues in the cable industry for smarts and good management.   That’s why his continuing refusal to deal with Comcast customers in explaining the company’s broadband “network management” practices is so confounding. 

The Network Neutrality Squad is a collaborative volunteer project involving technologists seeking to get at the facts, sort of a CSI for bandwidth detectives. This group wants to know whether and how Comcast – and other Internet service providers (ISPs) – might be blocking or disrupting broadband services to customers.