The FCC, the government agency responsible for regulating the telecom industry—but which sometimes acts rather like a lobbyist for its big players—is trying to kill plans to deploy part of the 700 MHz spectrum for use as a generic free wireless internet system.
The WSJ reports that a "group of
Silicon Vallery entrepreneurs," the M2Z group comprising Google,
Amazon, MySpace and pals, says it will take the FCC to court to force the agency to at least examine the plan before it kills it.
If it looks like business as usual, it's worth pointing out that the proposal does have certain idiosyncracies that one would indeed expect to freak out the hidebound legal bureaucrats of Capitol Hill. For example, instead of having the FCC auction off the the required mini-segment at auction, the group wants it portioned off by regulatory fiat. In return, the treasury would get a 5 percent kickback from gross revenues.
On the other hand, it's a plan for WWAN that doesn't involve you paying
$40 a month to a cellphone company under pound-me-in-the-ass contract terms, so is of obvious appeal to anyone who isn't a CTIA lawyer.
Story (Sub Required) [Wall Street Journal via Engadget]
