[opendtv] Re: 20050509 Mark's Monday Memo

I think the whole post boils down to only this:

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> On the other hand, if you allocate spectrum to a
> service, and create a marketplace to determine the
> instantaneous cost of buying access to that service,
> you eliminate much of the inefficiency and
> gerrymandering that occurs with our current system.

Oh? Then explain why AT&T, a "service" by your
definition, was broken up, and why the baby bells that
emerged are on their way to becoming the same thing
as the original monolith. I don't think that creating
monopolies is necessarily the right answer either.
Not to mention how the telephone companies that
originally offered a "service" want to get into TV
distribution, and how cable TV companies have already
gotten into offering telephone service.

The technical arguments on spectrum utilization are
the same, whether a single monolith operates the OTA
frequencies, or whether separate independent companies
do. Use IEEE 802.16 as an example of a very flexible
RF-based scheme, just to prove this to yourself. In
essence, WiMax does something very much like
combining ATSC, DVB-T, and DBS under one umbrella
(in terms of the different modulation schemes and
distribution models it supports). So in practice, any
RF "utility" that offers service to a large variety of
appliances will end up having to create many different
channels, with different capabilities, perhaps
dynamically changing these channels at different times
of day.

On a smaller scale, individual broadcasters could do
the same thing. And entities like USDTV can aggregate
some parts of the spectrum run by the individual
broadcasters, to create a hybrid between your single
monopolistic "utility" and the existing broadcaster
model.

Bert

 
 
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