Not much to say tonight, which is good because I think I’m getting sick again, and if I had a lot to say I’d probably just skip tonight’s Tech. It’s official: the race for FCC handouts is on, as the FCC voted to repurpose the old rural telephone subsidy , the Universal Service Fund (a fund that comes from your special tax dollars) into a grab bag of Internet subsidies. In 2013 we should look at repealing the whole thing, just as Republicans continue to press for Net Neutrality repeal . I’ve said it again and again: Sprint Nextel’s actions do not match the actions of a firm that believes it will be an oligopolist with price setting power after the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Its actions match those of a firm that fears greater 4G competition. Becuase competition is indeed what it fears , and certainly not from T-Mobile, a firm with no subsidized iPhones on offer.
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Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
Not much to say tonight, which is good because I think I’m getting sick again, and if I had a lot to say I’d probably just skip tonight’s Tech. It’s official: the race for FCC handouts is on, as the FCC voted to repurpose the old rural telephone subsidy , the Universal Service Fund (a fund that comes from your special tax dollars) into a grab bag of Internet subsidies. In 2013 we should look at repealing the whole thing, just as Republicans continue to press for Net Neutrality repeal . I’ve said it again and again: Sprint Nextel’s actions do not match the actions of a firm that believes it will be an oligopolist with price setting power after the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Its actions match those of a firm that fears greater 4G competition. Becuase competition is indeed what it fears , and certainly not from T-Mobile, a firm with no subsidized iPhones on offer.
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Tech at Night: The FCC subsidy game is on, Sprint reveals more of what it actually fears
We knew it was just a matter of time, right? Nor should Oakland be a surprise. Why would such a leftist town as Oakland want to be up staged by even a more leftist event? The current administration of Oakland has their own gig going so they don’t need the competition. At some point other
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Oakland, Occupyless
Sorry if you missed Tech at Night on Friday. I was under the weather. But I’m back, and with so much to review. How about legislation, good and bad? Well, mostly bad. Senate Democrats continue to push for senseless regulation of 4G Internet speeds , hindering vital new technology to increase high-speed Internet competition in America. Worse, Democrat Anna Eshoo is piling on in the House . Mary Bono Mack continues her push on privacy and security even though I don’t really see a government role in that, at least when it comes to private sector data. High profile cases do not good models make. Joe Barton wants to harass Amazon now , once again proving we did the right thing in not letting him head up Energy and Commerce. Seriously: If you’re allying with a Massachusetts Democrat, reconsider. When government comes preaching fairness, watch out: the push for a nationally-enforced Internet sales tax continues , which of course is just the first step to a joint state-national sales tax akin to the Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax. It’ll start at just one percent, I’m telling you. “One penny, for the children,” or “for seniors,” or even “for the Global War on Terror.” And then it will grow. We’re deeply in debt and running a massive deficit, but it’s time for a new program on “distracted driving”! OK, one piece of good news: Kay Bailey Hutchison is pressing the issue in the budget supercommittee of all places. encouraging voluntary incentive auctions of spectrum is great news no matter what the context, as we need all we can get. Giving the D block, previously proven to be unwanted at auction, over to civil defense is also good news, I believe. We learned that on 9/11. Look, I’d be all for auctioning it… if we hadn’t already tried and failed. In other news: one reason LightSquared is getting flak from FAA, is that the firm’s spectrum deployment will “result in an additional 30 tons of CO2″, per an FAA presentation on July 26, 2011. Yes, we’re supposed to hate LightSquared because of glowball warming. Whee. How about some FCC? Kelly Cobb makes the case for rolling back Net Neutrality , something that needs doing. That’s not the only bad thing the FCC is up to, though. The pigs continue to run to the trough of so-called Universal Service Fund reform, or Julius Genachowski’s grab bag of subsidies and bailouts . Oh yes, and they also join with Eric Holder to be a united Obama Administration front against AT&T and T-Mobile, as a legal bailout of Sprint Nextel. Mergers for me, but not for thee. AT&T isn’t giving up, though . PATENT WARS: Apple fends of HTC – Google’s proxy – for now , Apple beats Samsung in Australia , Samsung challenges Apple in Japan , but in the end, Apple may continue to work with Samsung to make iPhones . Try, just try to tell me we needed more patent lawyering, not less, in this country.
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Tech at Night: Legislation: some good but mostly bad, FCC action: all bad, Patent Wars: getting silly
Oh for crying out loud. For all that Washington talks tough about getting Americans access to high speed Internet, the “supercommittee” wants to tax new spectrum licensees. That’s just what we need: make it more expensive to build out America’s wireless infrastructure in order to pay for the President and his Cabinet to hand out money to their friends and political supporters. Isn’t that special? Here’s a joint letter against it from a number of industry groups . Then you’ve got Dick Blumenthal, Al Franken, and Amy Klobuchar, leading the charge for the Democrat-controlled Senate that hasn’t passed a budget in 900 days, but wants to get government involved on what can or can’t be called 4G wireless Internet. Great prioritization here. Spectrum’s important, though. Merely having access to a solid Internet connection lets Americans ave lots of money every year. Not just from being able to buy online, but also from gathering information, and simply from being able to stay at home. IIA did the math and American families each can save thousands of dollars a year online. And we’re busy regulating, taxing, and harassing firms like Google and AT&T, instead of getting government out of the way of investment. Yes, I’m frustrated. But don’t worry, there’s hope. Well, not really hope, but there’s a chance some of the money the government is taxing away may go to wireless firms as subsidies, not just to the administration’s favorite wired Internet companies. Don’t you feel better that the administration just promised money, and now we conservatives are alone to fight this? Universal Service Fund reform. I’ve warned about this problem probably since before Tech at Night formally started, and now we might not be able to stop it. We’re also still looking to emulate the People’s Republic of China and other fascist states by having the government seize property and censor websites , while doing nothing actually to stop people from transacting monetarily with criminal enterprises. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: PROTECT IP is a totalitarian power grab that threatens America’s Internet leadership, risking putting us way behind the curve with countries like Saudi Arabia and China. Don’t think that this allegedly copyright-driven effort will protect rights, either. Private companies are looking to do the same , bypassing the legal system entirely. Companies like Verisign surely would cooperate with the feds to clamp down on anyone the feds didn’t actually have the means to prosecute. Trials, evidence, pesky things like that, who needs ‘em? In case you don’t believe me and think I’m just speculating, per Ars Technica: Verisign said it has been piloting takedown procedures with US law enforcement agencies, cybersecurity experts, US government Computer Emergency Readiness Teams, and domain registrars to establish baseline procedures, and has begun planning pilots with European government agencies and registrars. Just what those baseline procedures are—and what recourse domain holders who run afoul of them have—hasn’t been spelled out. Verisign says it “will be offering a protest procedure to support restoring a domain name to the zone.” Doesn’t that make you feel better? If your property is hijacked by these privateers, you’ll have a ‘protest’ process to follow while your business is destroyed and your reputation attacked. Another thing I’ve said before: Put not your faith in “The Cloud” , as people who rely on RIM’s Blackberry Internet Service and Blackberry Enterprise Services are finding out this week.. And yes, that includes Apple’s. I’m not touching iCloud, even though iOS 5 came out today, and my iPhone 4S should arrive Friday. I make my own backups, thank you very much. Speaking of the iPhone 4S, remember how Sprint is supposed to be the kind, benevolent corporation looking out for the little guy, so much so that it’s morally imperative that Obama crush AT&T and T-Mobile’s plans to merge, by any means necessary? Well, Sprint won’t even unlock the GSM features of your own iPhone 4S , even though Sprint uses CDMA technology, not GSM, for voice. Is there a man alive with less self-awareness than Eric Schmidt?
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Tech at Night: Rage against terrible, big government priorities in DC, Extrajudicial Internet seizures coming, Lightsquared vs GPS
