WASHINGTON, DC — It’s said that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch – and the Bush administration contends that there also ain’t no such thing as a free national Internet, in spite of what the FCC may think.Proposals by the FCC concerning free, nation-wide access to potentially bare bones (as in, sexually sanitized) internet has been drawing praise and fire ever since Chairman Kevin Martin suggested it – but it’s not finding favor with the exiting powers that be.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the agency could approve the plan next week regardless of how the White House feels.
How the White House feels about the matter was communicated by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in a letter to the FCC’s Republican chairman. Among those feelings is the fact that “The administration believes that the [airwaves] should be auctioned without price or product mandate.”
Gutierrez went on to explain that “The history of FCC spectrum auctions has shown that the potential for problems increase where licensing is overly prescriptive or designed around unproven business models.”
Joining the government in its opposition is the wireless-phone industry, which doubts that a new producer could construct a functional new wireless networks. Free-speech supporters have chaffed at the imposition of what the media is calling a “smut-filter.”
As recommended by Martin, the FCC would auction of some of the airwaves available on a to-be-created national wireless-broadband service starting next year. Auction winners would be required to offer free access throughout the country on some, but not all, of those airwaves. The program would be funded by advertisements and would include a filtering system aimed at “protecting” children from sexually explicit material, although not violent or hateful Web content would presumably be allowed full access to surfers of all ages.
Martin contends that the plan to auction 25 megahertz of spectrum in the 2155MHz to 2180MHz band would create increased wireless broadband competition and bring affordable Wifi to many who currently have none.
“We’re reviewing the letter and it seems very similar to what had been put forth recently [by the Commerce Department,” FCC representative Robert Kenny responded. “We agree that market forces should help drive competition, but we also believe that providing free basic broadband to consumers is a good thing.”
President-elect Barack Obama has voiced concerns that the United States has fallen behind other developing nations as regards broadband availability and indicated on Saturday that a broadband build-out would be part of his economic stimulus plan.
Voting on the plan, which is similar to one proposed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers-backed startup M2Z Networks, is scheduled for December 18th at a meeting that Martin will chair.
