April 1 Special Edition: Wheeler Cancels Spectrum Auction!

According to the jumbled mass of papers the initiative to nationalize the Internet was conceived on high by the President himself who commenting on the impending merger of Time Warner Cable and Bright House into Charter wondered aloud that if it wouldnamp8217t be better to simply combine all Internet providers into one national company With Google in charge of courseamp160 Why stop at just letting the Googlites get all the cable company info in order to make settop boxesamp160 They already are providing Internet services in a few marketsSo the President called FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and told him to make it happenOf course it was supposed to be a summer surprise aimed at a July 4 launch amp8230 but we found the documentsWith shades of Theodore Vail and the onetime quasinationalization of American Telephone ampamp Telegraph the document details these incipient stepsThe guaranteed rateofreturn model didnamp8217t really work well amp8230 we can do betterThe US should simply nationalize the broadband infrastructure of the countryamp160 Cuba did it decades ago amp8230 pretty simpleamp160 Might not even have to pay them be in court for years thoughamp160 Be a lot of noise from Republicans saying weamp8217re overreaching again amp8230 but thereamp8217s no one in charge of any Republicans right now anywayIf we do that we can then merge all wire andor fiberbased broadband providers into one whollyowned subsidiary of the US amp8230 maybe under the FCC or the Department of CommerceAfter we get that set amp8230 maybe with Googleamp8217s fiber guys running it amp8230 we can cancel the spectrum auctions and nationalize all of the 4G and 5G and combine it tooWheeler is ready to jump in and do it this weekAnd just FYI Wheeler then plans to run the NAB amp8230 heamp8217ll announce it on the 10th amp8230 a trifecta amp8230 cable wireless and broadcast in one careerRandom NotesIn the past few weeks I have written about governments around the world and relationships vis a vis media companiesamp160 Or rather weamp8217ve written about the various manifestations of governmental pressure on media businessesThat pressure is not stopping amp8230 even though President Obama in Cuba taught a gentle lesson to Raul Castro about impertinent questions by winking and suggesting he answeramp160 One tiny step toward press freedom there amp8230 but more and more incidents of press throttling keep occurringamp160 Even hereamp160 The New York Times last Monday reported the Obama Administration has set new records in making it tougher to get Freedom of Information Act requests fulfilledamp160 Of course every administration gets better at it amp8230 and that just means itamp8217ll get worseamp160It doesnamp8217t look any better on the campaign trail eitheramp160 The Republican frontrunner puts the press in pens partly for their own protection of course and the frontrunning Democrat pretty much ignores the traveling pressNews needs to be accessibleThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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April 1 Special Edition: Wheeler Cancels Spectrum Auction!

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Paul S. Maxwell

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April 1 Special Edition: Wheeler Cancels Spectrum Auction!

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