Like a fresh spring breeze, new radio-frequency spectrum is in the air. It is so close that you can almost smell it – and seek to keep others away from it.
The next big spectrum land grab is over 700 Megahertz (MHz.) It’s the promised land of “beachfront property” that broadcasters are set to vacate on February 19, 2009, when the transition to digital television is supposed to be complete. Lots of folks are jockeying now to lock up these airwaves.
When Democrats took control of Congress last election, the lobbyists for all the big technology and telecom companies in Washington pulled out their wish lists, ripped them up, and re-arranged their legislative priorities.
Gone was the push for sweeping telecommunications legislation, hemispheric-wide free-trade agreements and limitations on Internet taxes. Only a Republican Congress and White House could agree upon those.
A new priority has emerged: overhauling the nation’s patent system. Seemingly out of nowhere, it is suddenly all the talk of Washington’s political-corporate machinations.
When it comes to adapting information technology, Washington is always about two years behind the rest of the country. So it makes sense that, finally, Web 2.0 is catching hold and gathering momentum here, in early 2007.
Washington’s political operative and consulting class has been energized by the early start to the 2008 election. And no one is ignoring the Web this campaign cycle. Call it Politics 2.0, and watch how it changes the media power balance when it comes to political discourse.
Is Google, the foremost corporate advocate of net neutrality, doing a big fake? Have they succeeded in making everyone believe they will stand up to the Bell companies, even as the company cuts deals to become the preferred provider on a carrier’s network? It sure sounds like it, listening to some recent public comments from one of the company’s top policy execs.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend — sometimes.
When XM and Sirius Satellite Radio announced their proposed merger two weeks ago, the first to oppose the union was the National Association of Broadcasters. If satellite radio didn’t compete with terrestrial radio, this merger would be a lot more troubling – and a lot less bothersome to NAB.
NAB’s motive is transparent: it always seeks to harm XM and Sirius. Broadcasters have done that for 10 years, and they’re doing it still. Yet the two satellite companies have lured more than 13 million into paying nearly $13 a month for the news, talk and music they used to get for free.
The one lobbying group that might have something useful to say about this merger is the Recording Industry Association of America. Having had their own high-profile battles with the satellite companies, RIAA is the “enemy of the enemy,” if you will. But RIAA has decided to keep quiet. Why the silence? Read on.
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Bell and cable companies have long wanted to move on from net neutrality, their 2006 policy debacle. But once Washington has grabbed hold of an issue, it can’t seem to let it go.
I’m not talking about the Federal Communication Commission here. The big Bell companies currently hold sway at the communications agency. No one expects the FCC to take action on neutrality against the Bells, who reject neutrality because, they say, the Internet shouldn’t be regulated.
What I’m referring to is the action happening at another F*C-ing agency: The Federal Trade Commission. The FTC usually gets press for investigating gasoline, drug or tobacco companies. But every decade or so, the FTC also makes a bid for jurisdiction over the Internet.
