Wireless Future Program: Recent and Upcoming Events

As Internet access moves increasingly to mobile platforms, control over access to the public airwaves will determine whether wireless broadband networks are closed, costly and channelized - or open, affordable and innovative. The conventional wisdom in Washington is that spectrum is scarce and must be auctioned as exclusive licenses. The reality is emerging technologies and business models that allow shared, opportunistic and unlicensed access to an abundance of bandwidth for all. This forum reviewed the technologies… more

On the third annual "Earth Day for the Internet", communities across the country are holding events to learn about and advocate for that marvel of modern infrastructure, the Internet. In the nation's capital, advocates, experts and government representatives will honor OneWebDay, September 22, with a tribute to the Internet's role in politics and the politics of the Internet.

Organizers in DC are embracing OneWebDay 2008's theme of participation in democracy. They launched an e-Democracy time capsule on August 22, 2008 and… more

Although the U.S. once led the world in Internet deployment and innovation, our nation continues to plummet in international rankings in terms of broadband adoption, speeds and costs. As a result, there is growing support for an affirmative national broadband policy to promote more affordable and ubiquitous access to high-bandwidth connectivity. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right. Since 2001, the e-NC Authority of North Carolina has been at the forefront… more

The New America Foundation/Wireless Future Program is pleased to announce that the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks (ISC4CWN) will be held on May 28th – May 30th, 2008 in Washington, DC. Co-hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at its downtown headquarters, IS4CWN is the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies working to build universal, low-cost wireless broadband networks around the world. The Summit serves as an integral… more

With Google, Larry Page has gone a long way toward achieving the audacious goal he and co-founder Sergey Brin set for the company: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."

One of his current goals is equally ambitious: making the Internet itself accessible, anywhere and anytime, through pervasive and affordable wireless broadband networks. Page has helped lead Google's efforts over the past year to pry open both unused TV airwaves and closed cellular networks to promote… more

The Internet, social networking and peer-to-peer (p2p) communication have transformed how people connect, as well as the scope, scale and speed of mass collaborations. This transformation has opened the door for self-emerging and increasingly complex virtual forums, allowing individuals to collaborate and organize from worlds apart.

Please join us for a discussion about what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures. Shirky will discuss his new book, Here Comes Everybody:… more

When EarthLink announced its decision to withdraw further investments in municipal wireless networks in November 2007, the future of Philadelphia's network, along with hundreds of municipal wireless projects, became uncertain. Wireless Philadelphia, the nation's first big-city municipal wireless initiative, led the way for cities to invest in broadband infrastructure. Although a number of other muni wireless networks have been set up and are running successfully (such as St. Cloud, FL and Chaska and Minneapolis, MN) troubles with the Philadelphia… more

"Free My Phone" was the impassioned headline of Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, who took both the wireless carriers and the FCC to task for not giving consumers the choice to use the devices and applications of their choice. Currently, wireless carriers can restrict the phones and other devices consumers can use on their network, what device features they can access, and what software applications and content they can download. This "locking and blocking"… more

On Tuesday, December 11th, New America Foundation, The Ethos Group, and the Center for International Media Action will release an in-depth analysis and report on Philadelphia’s efforts to build a municipal wireless network. Philadelphia’s initiative to promote wireless technology and address the problem of the digital divide has influenced municipal wireless projects nationwide and helped shape the national discussion over municipal broadband.

The New America Foundation and the Media Mobilizing Project will host a panel of municipal broadband experts to discuss… more

When the transition to digital TV is completed in February 2009, broadcasters will retain channels 2 to 51, but will actually be using less than half of that spectrum to broadcast over-the-air DTV signals. Local TV stations will be separated by empty channels, known as "white space" -- underutilized spectrum that new “smart radio” technologies can use for productive activities, including wireless broadband, without interfering with television reception. DARPA and other wireless innovators have already developed far… more

Spectrum has become one of the most valuable natural resources of the Information Age. Unlike other comparably valuable natural resources such as land and oil, it is owned by the public and allocated exclusively by the federal government. Also, unlike those resources, it is invisible both literally and figuratively: the general public does not understand—and consequently does not care about—its allocation. This combination of huge amounts of money at stake and public ignorance creates the classic conditions for special interest… more

In the coming weeks, the FCC will set the bidding and service rules for the auction of the 700MHz channels being freed up by the DTV transition—“beachfront” airwaves ideal for the provision of high-speed wireless broadband services. This last big sale of prime spectrum is expected to raise $10 to $20 billion in federal revenue. But far more important to the economy and to consumers is whether this auction promotes broadband deployment and price competition in every part of the… more

As broadband data communication moves into the mobile, wireless world, should basic concepts of “network neutrality” that exist in the wireline world be applied to the wireless industry? On February 21, Voice-over-IP provider Skype filed a petition requesting that the FCC affirm the right of consumers to attach any legal device (such as a VoIP-enabled cell phone) to cellular networks, as embodied in the Commission’s Carterfone rules that are currently observed in the wireline telephone world. more

With U.S. broadband penetration still lagging far behind other advanced economies—and rural and low-income areas in particular being left on the wrong side of the digital divide—a variety of emerging wireless technologies offer the potential to quickly and cost-effectively bring affordable and ubiquitous broadband access to all Americans. While these wireless solutions offer great promise, they all suffer from a lack of adequate access to the public airwaves (spectrum)—either on an exclusive licensed or shared, unlicensed basis. Recently,… more

After watching first responder communications systems fail on 9/11 and after Hurricane Katrina, with tragic results, the vital importance of spectrum management for public safety communications has taken center stage in recent years. Congress recently passed legislation to reallocate 24 MHz of prime spectrum from TV to public safety in 2009, as part of America’s transition from analog to digital television. Currently, this new spectrum is set to be managed under the same assumptions and orthodoxies as current public safety… more

On June 28, 2006, the Senate Commerce Committee approved wide-ranging (and highly-contentious) telecommunications legislation which is now awaiting action on the Senate floor. The Advanced Telecommunications Opportunity and Reform Act (HR 5252) includes two key sections meant to remove barriers to rural and municipal wireless broadband networks. Title VI would open up much-needed -- and currently unused -- TV spectrum for use by unlicensed wireless broadband devices, and Title V would lift state-level restrictions on municipal broadband networks.… more

In the rapidly evolving technology industry, software platforms offer the benefits of innovation broadly to a wide "ecosystem" of partners and competitors. As successful high tech companies develop new products and platforms, they must balance the demand of consumers and partners for cutting-edge technology with the need to fully preserve opportunities for others to offer technologies that may complement or compete with parts of the platform itself.

As Microsoft prepares to launch Windows Vista, enhancements to its… more

In its recent report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies concluded what many have long feared to be true -- that the nation's outdated K-12 educational system is inadequately preparing America's youth for the jobs and global competition of the 21st Century. One of the most promising ways to remedy this is by investing in the research and development of advanced learning technologies, a.k.a. “Serious Games.” To commemorate House Innovation Week, the New America Foundation and Digital Promise,… more

With the FCC dramatically increasing fines for indecency over broadcast TV -- and influential members of Congress threatening to extend decency standards to cable and satellite networks -- the debate over how best to protect children from inappropriate media has reached a fever pitch.

The problem is real: A plethora of studies show that repeated exposure to violence in the mass media increases aggression, desensitizes children to acts of violence and heightens their fears of becoming a victim of violence. Even… more

In its recent report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies concluded what many have long feared to be true — that the nation's outdated K-12 educational system is inadequately preparing America's youth for the jobs and global competition of the 21st Century. One of the most promising ways to remedy this is by investing in the research and development of advanced learning technologies, a.k.a. “Serious Games.” We all know of the power of video games to captivate and… more