DALLAS: The Dallas Morning News had some choice words for the National Broadband Plan. An editorial in the newspaper said reallocating broadcast spectrum for broadband, à la the plan, was “troubling enough in its arrogance, especially since the strategy was quietly put into motion without a formal vote of the five FCC commissioners.
“By trying to pick winners and losers, the FCC threatens to undercut the multibillion-dollar investments that radio and television broadcasting companies have made in next-generation equipment and discourage additional innovation. And for anyone who watches broadcast television, the result could be the loss of free broadcast channels.
“Wireless companies, whose networks are buckling under the popularity of data connections on smartphones, require more capacity. However, broadcasters aren't the reason. In fact, television broadcasting uses only about 60 percent of the spectrum that it used in the 1970s, yet it provides a four-fold improvement in audio and video quality.”
The full brunt of the editorial is still available at The Dallas Morning NewsWeb site.
