Comments on: Thursday Morning Linkorama http://michaelsiegel.net/?p=1047 Missing Sleep Since June 2007 (Blogging Since 2005) Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:22:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: rpl http://michaelsiegel.net/?p=1047&cpage=1#comment-846 rpl Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:33:08 +0000 http://michaelsiegel.net/?p=1047#comment-846 The free Internet plan seems pretty foolish, particularly in conjunction with the FCC’s requirement that the free services be run with nanny-ware, which seems like an operations nightmare (not to mention a HUGE political football — who decides what constitutes “offensive content”). What I find interesting about the plan is that it is coupled to a spectrum auction. I’d almost like to see it go ahead just so we can see what the wireless companies *really* think about the proposal. If it is truly “not a viable business model,” then we should see all the major wireless companies no-bid in the auction, right? Who here thinks that will happen?

The government needs to get serious about auctioning spectrum. The British government has already shown that done correctly spectrum auctions can raise a ton of money and result in more productive use of this scarce resource, but the FCC seems intent on giving it away as a form of corporate welfare or wasting it on wacky social engineering projects (or, as we’ve seen today, both). The result is poor use of resources and reduced consumer choice as incumbents lock out competition and use their allocation as a cash cow. No, thanks.

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