Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Here is David Isenberg's posting about the Senate's refusal to hear from anybody representing the public interest in its hearings about whether the 700mH swath of spectrum should be sold off to the incumbents or opened up for innovation.

On Thursday the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on how to re-purpose the 700 MHz (Analog TV) spectrum. While there are several good people testifying (most notably Phil Weiser, from University of Colorado, Paul Cosgrove, NYC's Commissioner of IT and Telecom, and Jim Barksdale, Reed Hundt's partner in Frontline Wireless) there will be NOBODY representing the public's interest in putting one or two channels into Part 15 (or similar) to capitalize on what we've learned from the unprecedentedly awesome success of Wi-Fi.

I wrote to Senate Commerce staffer James Assey to recommend that Harold Feld testify (check his blog posting on 700 MHz), but I'd also be very happy to see J.H. Snider or Michael Calabrese from the New America Foundation, Tim Wu (Columbia Law School), David P. Reed (HP and MIT Media Lab) or any of a number of public spirited spokespeople who know a lot about the uses of spectrum. None of these people will be heard unless the agenda, announced today changes. The facts the Committee learns have already been selected.