(2007-07-12) Open Spectrum Analog Tv

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin recommended that the 700M Hz (Analog Tv Spectrum) have conditions in its auction next year forcing the buyer to support other services.

Paul Kapustka says that Reed Hundt of Frontline Wireless considers it a joke. Though Martin's draft version of the 700 M Hz rules haven't yet been officially revealed, Frontline co-founder Reed Hundt has seen and heard enough of what Martin proposes, to call it a "dreadful plan" that favors incumbent telcos over new entrants, while paying lip service to the word "open." "What the chairman has presented is a Trojan Horse, filled not with Greeks but with Verizon lobbyists," Hundt said in a phone conversation Tuesday morning. "What America needs is a new national network that really works. If you let Verizon buy it (the spectrum) and put it in the bottom left drawer, you've done nothing." Others agree with Hundt. We need truly Open Spectrum.

Conversely, lots of Mercantilist folks think he's a pinko.