(Untitled)

[vokzal]

Amanda, this is how you sell books, apparently!
http://slashdot.org/articles/07/05/29/0030213.shtml
Note the signed hypermoderns being sold on their page...

Zombies invaded San Francisco, interacted with Critical Mass, and one even took a Scientologist test. Read more... )

Comments

public airwaves?

[twoeleven]

um, this block of spectrum is currently used -- and essentially owned -- by the broadcast tv networks. the fcc (well, the congress¹, really) is in the process of kicking them out. there are a few bands that are more or less public: shortwave, the bands around 900mhz and 2.4ghz, and a few others. it's public only in the sense that the license holders have to "serve the public good" in extremely vague ways.

1: technically, the one a few congresses ago.

randomly chosen article about the auction.

the question about or how to allow telecoms incumbents is an interesting one, because of the question of anti-competitive bias. i think it's worth letting them bid, with some restrictions. ones that pop into mind are: allowing each to bid only for physical regions where they are not currently present or don't hold monopolies; slicing up the bandwidth in physical regions to allow multiple wireless broadband competitors in each region; or selling the bandwidth with strings attached allowing the feds to retrieve it if the owners don't meet some requirements for services or prices offered.