The move from analog to digital TV will free up a ton of unused white space. The issue is – what do we do with all of that space?
The folks at Google are pushing to free it up.
Big telecom companies would like this white space to remain heavily regulated and controlled. If this space is free, then suddenly we’re looking at the realistic possibility of universal high-speed wireless internet access at a fraction of the current cost.
I think there are excellent reasons for philosophers and educators to support this movement. I’m not an expert in this area, but here are the benefits as far as I can tell.
Rural Wireless
The airwaves used for analog TV permeate much better and reach areas where the current infrastructure for the internet does not. This gives everyone easy access to the internet without any major infrastructure overhaul. People who have never been able access the internet because telecom companies have considered it not economically viable to build in their areas will have access.
Cheap Access
This promises to be cheap access. Right now breaking into the internet service providing industry (particularly at the level of building the necessary infrastructure) is either heavily controlled or at least prohibitively expensive. There is very little competition at the base level of internet service providing. Freeing the airwaves would make it less risky to enter this market.
One of the biggest backers of freeing the airwaves is Google. The company that brings you free everything in order to bring more eyes to their sites to generate more ad revenue. Google wants you on the internet and they don’t want to be a hassle for you or expensive. You can bet Google is going to find ways to utilize the white space to ensure that there are cheap (and dare I say – free) ways to get online.
Economic Benefits
This will take some of the pinch out of doing business. It will be cheaper for businesses to get online, and compete in a global economy that is increasingly reliant on the internet.
Educational Benefits
Online resources will be cheaper and easily available for universities. Any prospects for using the internet to reduce the costs of education for students (e.g. distance learning) would be that much cheaper.
Social Justice
Open source software has made it relatively cheap to get computers and software for the economically disadvantaged. With cheap (or free) high speed internet the poor suddenly have access that even a few years ago was limited to the very well off.
The Right and the Left Can Agree On This
As far as I can tell, the right and the left should agree on this. One major aim of the left is to level the playing field and provide equal access and opportunity to societal goods and resources. Here we have a proposal that will massively benefit the economically disadvantage effectively leveling the playing field by giving them access to cutting edge educational resources and tools.
The right is not necessarily opposed to that aim of the left, but they tend to think that it shouldn’t trump other factors. However, this is an issue where that aim of the left does not seem to conflict with some core commitments of many on the right. Here we have a proposal that effectively decreases government regulation of an industry and let’s the marketplace takeover. This proposal is less government, pro small business and likely to encourage technical innovation and job growth.
Objections
The only possible objection that might possibly dissuade someone is some vague notions about interference. The idea is that we need to regulate access to this space, because if we let everyone on the network we’ll get interference and no one will get on. We’re likely to hear that from the only group that stands to lose on this – the telecom giants.
However, Google doesn’t seem to be worried about this interference concern. One of the persons on their team addresses this issue. As far as I can tell, current technology already gives us the tools to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Again, check their site out and watch their videos.
Bottomline: This is not some fringe, techy-geek issue. The internet is a public good and it is an enormous good. There are huge social, educational, and economic benefits at stake here. Perhaps the issues are not as simple as I have laid out, but on the face of it the idea of freeing the airwaves strikes me as an absolute win proposal that people in the education field should be 100% behind.
For More: Check out www.freetheairwaves.com – The intro video has a very nice summary of the issue, plus a range of follow up videos that are well worth watching. I highly recommend watching them all.
[UPDATE: Air waves freed…Right on, FCC] – November 6, 2008
Well said.
Google always comes up with nice ideas! I respct it for its way doing business. Not like Microsoft, push everyone out of the game and not letting anyone in because they came up with a product that they want to be the only product in the world. I just can’t stand them.
Google is one of the internet companies that I know the longest and I think they will be successful in their ideas because they not only think about themselves. They came up with an idea that will help a lot of people! They can count on my vote for them! Keep it up GOOGLE!!!
Do you get a reduced size picture? In some cases on certain programs, my picture has effectively been reduced from 32″ to a 26″.
That and other oddities like picture freezing or being scrambled. The antenna has a gain booster that helps only slightly. Signal strength is good but there is something else severely wrong with Digital TV.
Actually, I believe Digital TV was a plot by commercial TV providers — the ones who sell TV service (Cable, Satellite, Telco, etc.) to eliminate Broadcast TV all together. They would have a lot to gain from doing that! There really wasn’t any “NEED” to change. Things were fine as they were. The bogus excuse that they need the TV band for Public Service is a crock since Digital TV still resides in the band.
Broadcast TV is dead as far as I’m concerned. Of course, I hardly watch TV anyway but it is the idea that America wanted to gorge our landfills with perfectly good working TVs and pollute the environment with their toxic contents for the almighty dollar.