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[Thomas Beckett <thomas AT tbeckett.com>]

Edward Wesolowski wrote:
> Tom: This has always struck me as tricky and peculiar. Traditionally the 
> U.S. government has been adverse to control of such things as the 
> "public" airways. They get into it, but the point of departure has 
> traditionally been the govment  shouldn't run stuff like television, 
> like the BBC does. But instead of government control of the public RF 
> spectrum, television and  radio channels have been controlled by 
> private, licensee companies.

The spectrum is a natural resource.  Its use transcends political 
boundaries, so the federal government regulates it.  The FCC doles out 
the right to use the spectrum to various commercial, nonprofit, 
educational and government concerns, but with few exceptions isn't 
really concerned with producing content.  /Regulating/ content is 
another matter entirely.  Just ask Janet Jackson's breast or Howard 
Stern's mouth.

The whole point of government regulation of spectrum arises from the 
notion that spectrum is a /limited/ resource.  You can't have everyone 
broadcasting at any frequency they want because of the potential for 
interference.  Because it is a limited resource, holding a license for a 
given slice of spectrum confers the licensee with a significant degree 
of monopoly power.  This monopoly power carries a lot of economic 
strength.  With consolidation of the broadcasting industry, that 
economic power is enormous and translates into political power as well.

Technology has advanced to the point that RF devices can detect and 
avoid interference through various mechanisms (that I'm not 
sophisticated enough to understand).  There are good arguments for the 
adoption of an "Open Spectrum" policy.  I suspect that some governmental 
ground rules for Open Spectrum would still be necessary (e.g., you have 
to use interference avoidant technology).  I also suspect that the 
government will not back away from regulating content so easily, either. 
 Even so, Open Spectrum might still be better than the current regime.

Enough rambling for now.  Interesting issues.

Fight the power!

TaB