FCC Looks To Offer Consumers More Wireless Choice 65
An anonymous reader writes "The FCC is butting heads with wireless phone companies over 'wiggle room' the government organization wishes to allow consumers. Along with the move to the auction system, the government is removing restrictions on pieces of the wireless spectrum, which will allow a freedom of choice not usually seen with wireless communication devices. 'In the past, when the F.C.C. auctioned spectrum for cellular service, it allowed the winners to determine the equipment and applications that would run on their networks. That created the current status quo, in which a vast majority of American consumers buy a handset from a wireless service provider. The open-access rules, which will apply to about one-third of the spectrum being sold at the auction, represent a significant departure from past practice. They require the winners to let consumers use any tested, safe and compatible device or application on its network. Entrepreneurs could sell handsets with capabilities that are unavailable -- or unavailable at affordable prices -- from current carriers.'"
Good News (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Good News (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm glad to see the FCC taking this small first step, but I don't have a lot of hope for how much this would help. When you think about it, all the sleazy monopolistic telecom companies are basically offering the exact same service: transferring bits from one end of a network to another. Of course, instead of treating this service like what it is (i.e. a commodity) and charging appropriately, the telecoms love pretending that they're offering something unique and, of course, charging excessively for it. Witness the outrageous rates for text messages (which should cost a fraction of what a voice call costs), EDGE/GPRS (voice calls are already almost always transferred digitally.. and yet the telecoms pretend they've built separate special data-only networks that you must pay an extra $50/month for), "Powerboost" from Comcast (who is RST'ing bittorrent conns to eke out the bandwidth to do this).
If the FCC really wants to help us consumers, how about freeing up a reasonable portion of the spectrum, that's not competing with microwave ovens and cordless phones, for free use in consumer devices. Maybe then we could solve the "last mile problem" our own damn selves without depending on these crooked telecoms who seem to only be concerned with merging with each other, eating up government handouts, and ignoring consumer complaints.