Kevin Martin Has His Head In The Broadband Cloud - TheShellyPalmerReport

This week FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin put some new spectrum up for auction But there39s a catch The winner will be required to provide free wireless broadband access to 50 of America within four years and cover 95 of the country within 10First I want to offer a tip of the cap to Commissioner Martin and the other FCC commissioners The Federal Communications Commission FCC is an independent United States government agency established by the Communications Act of 1934 The FCC is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio television wire satellite and cable It39s nice that people who are responsible for regulating our communications have started thinking about the size and shape of the broadband cloud that will define interpersonal and business communications for the next half centuryThis random act of futuremindedness has inspired a few questions What kind of wireless broadband connectivity would best serve the people of the United States of America Should we start with the feature set or think through the benefits and work backwards Who should pay for the network Is nationwide wireless broadband connectivity a privilege or a right Should it be run by a private enterprise or a government agency Should it be a quotfreewayquot or a quottoll roadquot Should this really be a version of Al Gore39s quotInformation Super Highwayquot a service to be purchased in a free market or a service protected by a government granted monopoly Yes this is the tip of the iceberg and the list of questions is practically endless For the moment let39s cut away the quothowquot and the quotwhoquot parts of the equation and focus on the quotwhatquot What should be built What is the job we expect it to do What is the promise of ubiquitous free nationwide wireless broadband There is a school of thought that follows a mantra quotdeployed innovation must match consumer aspirationquot This group will advocate for an quotalso ranquot network Users of such a network would have an experience similar to a current lowend ASDL wired broadband connection 15 Mbps down 768Kbps up The actual numbers and technospeak don39t matter This would be a slow network with very limited multimedia and file transport capability Music piracy might still be an issue but the casual transport of high or even medium quality movie files would be cumbersome The devices that would take advantage of such a network would be very similar in concept and construction to those available todayThen there39s the quotBeam me up Scottyquot group who will advocate for the fastest highest quality network that current technology will allow Many people believe that this would be a version of WiMax technology with speeds approaching slow cable modems 6 Mbps down 3 Mbps up This kind of network would enable all kinds of interesting stuff At that speed you can move big highquality movie files with relative ease but amp8211 more importantly you can access big files stored on remote servers in realtime This last point is the most important because it would change the fundamental way we use computersRight now your computer PDA or Cell phone all use the following component parts A central processing unit cpu connected to some random access memory ram that is in very close proximity to the cpu There is also some storage like your hard drive close by Unless your computer is on a robust local area clientserver network like many businesses are most of the data you access is stored inside your computerThis fundamental construct of a personal computer has not changed substantially since they were introduced in the late 1970sFast forward to life in a highspeed wireless broadband cloud Your laptop PDA or cell phone will not have to have enough builtin storage to store everything you want or need you will be able to access the data over the air Now add an OLED Organic Light Emitting Diode screen and a big battery and you have a class of wireless devices that will change the way we behave Everything would change Every movie would be one click away All retail products would be one click away All downloadable products would be accessible Every photo you ever took every pdf file you ever scanned would all be available in the palm or your hand or in the backseat of your car instantly It would truly be a lifechanging network Think about the computers in your oven coffee maker car wrist watch toys etc A network of this capability would give certain inanimate objects the illusion of thought We would live in a world that could be taught to react to us and to our needs It39s really fun to think aboutBack to reality amp8211 we39re not likely to see this kind of technological innovation inspired by the current auction It the last auction private enterprise steered clear of the spectrum that was going to be encumbered by requirements to share it police and fire departments And for good reason amp8230 no one wanted to spend billions of dollars and have any restrictions placed upon how they might maximize their investmentHowever I think this is an encouraging step in the right direction I also think you should personally weighin Contact your elected officials and tell them how you feel about this Stone axes bearskins and smoke signals or a center seat on the bridge of the Starship Enterpriseamp160 it39s up to youShelly Palmer is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2006 Focal Press Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences NY the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards He is the ViceChairman of the National Academy of Media Arts ampamp Sciences an organization dedicated to education and leadership in the areas of technology media and entertainment Palmer also oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmyamp174 Awards which honors outstanding achievements in the science and technology of advanced media You can read Shellyamp8217s blog here Shelly can be reached at shellypalmernetCheck out the Shelly Palmer Report archive

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Kevin Martin Has His Head In The Broadband Cloud - TheShellyPalmerReport

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