September 12, 2007 at 16:39Broadcasters began the fight against wireless networks
The rich television industry is increasingly positioning itself as the most important enemy of the Internet, network technology and scientific and technological progress.
The day before yesterday, the Association of American Broadcasters announced the launch of a large-scale campaign to influence the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ban wireless Internet devices from transmitting data in the so-called “white” portion of the spectrum used for broadcasting. I must say that plans for the use of such technologies were announced by Microsoft, Google, Intel, HP and other influential IT companies. However, broadcasters are not at all inferior to “computer scientists” in the art of lobbying, so the outcome of this case is difficult to predict.
As part of the “anti-computer campaign”, broadcasters will launch a series of social advertising on TV, as well as order a number of publications in the influential press. In addition, a letter will be sent to the FCC with a detailed explanation of why transmitting data over a digital TV signal degrades the quality of television reception.
At the same time, HP and other companies have already begun testing prototypes of devices operating in the “white” part of the spectrum. It is assumed that data transmission is carried out at those intervals when the air is free, but the first tests showed that the prototypes do not work correctly and sometimes cause interference. The developers claim that they can fix all the problems. Broadcasters respond that even the most ideal technologies will not be able to guarantee the absence of interference in the future, because poor-quality Chinese fakes and other non-certified devices may appear on the market. “If our friends at Intel, Google and Microsoft can put up with system errors, computer glitches and loss of connectivity, then we cannot afford that,” said the chairman of the Association of American Broadcasters.
The day before yesterday, the Association of American Broadcasters announced the launch of a large-scale campaign to influence the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ban wireless Internet devices from transmitting data in the so-called “white” portion of the spectrum used for broadcasting. I must say that plans for the use of such technologies were announced by Microsoft, Google, Intel, HP and other influential IT companies. However, broadcasters are not at all inferior to “computer scientists” in the art of lobbying, so the outcome of this case is difficult to predict.
As part of the “anti-computer campaign”, broadcasters will launch a series of social advertising on TV, as well as order a number of publications in the influential press. In addition, a letter will be sent to the FCC with a detailed explanation of why transmitting data over a digital TV signal degrades the quality of television reception.
At the same time, HP and other companies have already begun testing prototypes of devices operating in the “white” part of the spectrum. It is assumed that data transmission is carried out at those intervals when the air is free, but the first tests showed that the prototypes do not work correctly and sometimes cause interference. The developers claim that they can fix all the problems. Broadcasters respond that even the most ideal technologies will not be able to guarantee the absence of interference in the future, because poor-quality Chinese fakes and other non-certified devices may appear on the market. “If our friends at Intel, Google and Microsoft can put up with system errors, computer glitches and loss of connectivity, then we cannot afford that,” said the chairman of the Association of American Broadcasters.