Wireless Future Program: Recent and Upcoming Events

Terrorists have discovered the internet as a valuable medium for furthering their cause. The number of websites operated by terrorists exploded from only 12 in 1998 to more than 4,800 today. “Postmodern terrorism… is less centralized, less structured, less organized, and far more dangerous than the terrorism of the late twentieth century,” asserts Gabriel Weimann in his newly released book Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges. Using data gathered from an exhaustive eight year study spanning four… more

As the era of broadcasting as a primarily scheduled and one-way service fades to black, public broadcasting both here and abroad will need to transform itself to keep pace with commercial media. As the public becomes accustomed to consuming video anytime and anyplace -- including in bite-size segments on mobile wireless devices 24/7 -- traditional broadcasting will be eclipsed by a wide variety of new digital media formats and distribution platforms.

Our distinguished panel will offer… more

Business, philanthropic, education and public broadcasting leaders from across the country gather in Washington, DC today for the Digital Future Initiative (DFI) Summit, an invitation-only event where participants will explore the future of America’s public service media.

The Summit features the release of the final report of the bipartisan DFI panel and the launch of working groups to implement key DFI recommendations to develop, fund and launch major new initiatives addressing… more

At its recent markup, the House Commerce Committee included language in the digital TV transition bill directing the FCC to complete its proposed rulemaking to open up vacant, unused channels in the TV band spectrum (so-called "white space") for unlicensed wireless broadband use (Docket 04-186).

The reallocation of prime airwaves from "broadcast to broadband" has been a major impetus behind DTV legislation. In May 2004, the FCC issued a proposed rulemaking to allow "smart" wireless broadband devices to… more

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies has become an urgent national dilemma. Within the coming weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up DTV legislation likely to impose a hard deadline on the clearance of TV channels 52 to 69 -- freeing up precious spectrum for public safety voice interoperability and for… more

We've all heard the dire statistics. The U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband penetration. The dominant cable and DSL duopoly is failing to bring affordable broadband connectivity

In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, local TV broadcasters won free use of spectrum worth tens of billions of dollars. In the decade since, broadcasters have sought a seemingly endless array of additional subsidies -- including more spectrum, tax breaks, the broadcast flag, DTV tuner mandate, and DTV multicasting must-carry rights -- to speed their DTV transition. A new book by New America Foundation Senior Research Fellow J.H. Snider explains how these lobbying feats were accomplished. He… more

On February 10, 2005 the FCC rejected a proposal to expand broadcasters' must-carry rights on cable TV systems to include the multiple channels of programming that each station can transmit in digital. Now the battle moves to Congress, where House Commerce Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) has promised early action on a comprehensive bill to end the long-delayed DTV transition.

Setting a deadline for the end of analog TV will free up invaluable spectrum for wireless broadband -- and raise billions… more

Why are America's municipalities -- from small town Corpus Christi and Granbury, Texas, to big cities such as Philadelphia -- building wireless broadband networks and fighting state legislatures that want to ban them? The networks rely on unlicensed public airwaves to extend the reach of WiFi-type broadband coverage to blanket business districts, towns and even entire cities.

Recent reports criticizing municipal wireless networks make them sound like some socialist conspiracy. But the small towns and cities building these networks don't… more

Please join the New America Foundation and Digital Promise for an invitation only Congressional Breakfast Briefing to mark the release of two new education papers on America's stagnant educational productivity and the role e-learning R&D could play to increase it. Learn why e-learning R&D is prone to market failure and why it makes sense to fund e-learning R&D the way NSF funds scientific research and NIH funds health research.

This is the second public meeting of the Digital Future Initiative, a distinguished panel whose mission is to develop a vision for the digital future of public broadcasting. At this conference, the nation's most innovative local public stations present their visions for the greatly enhanced programming and community services made possible by digital technologies. This forum previews visions for digital learning services, civic engagement and broad-based community partnerships, as well as the public debate over how to adequately fund America's… more

As commercial stations prepare to leverage the enormous potential of digital broadcasting, it remains unclear whether America's non-commercial broadcasters will have the resources to keep pace -- and to deliver the enhanced community services that digital multi-casting and interactive programming make possible. The presidents of the principal public broadcasting entities will articulate their vision for America's DTV future -- and announce the launch of an Enhanced Funding Initiative to propose a plan for a sustainable source of funding for… more

Featuring New America Experts

The rapid development of Internet applications and digital convergence has already rendered the Telecom Act of 1996 largely obsolete and a source of contentious regulatory uncertainty. Sen. Ted Stevens, the likely new Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, is expected to initiate a major debate on overhauling the Act next year. Voice over IP and the potential for wireless broadband as an alternative last-mile pipe further complicate the policy debate.

What kind of deregulation - or re-regulation - is best for stimulating… more

Last August, Berlin completed its transition to terrestrial, over-the-air digital TV. From start to finish, Berlin's DTV transition took approximately 9 months. The most interesting feature of its transition plan was that instead of giving subsidies to complete the transition to broadcasters, they were given to consumers. Consumers dependent on broadcast TV were given a voucher so they could purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes allowing them to continue to watch broadcast TV on their analog TV sets.

In… more

The U. S. telecommunications industry has been through some tough times over the past few years. Yet, new technologies as well as entirely new networks have emerged in the industry. Today, wireless and cable networks compete with traditional phone providers. IP networks and applications -- such as Instant Messaging and email -- have emerged to compete with traditional voice service in ways never anticipated by the writers of the Telecom Act. These changes have given… more

What do hundreds of truck stops, thousands of public schools, millions of residences and countless businesses have in common? They all rely on a commonly owned, public resource to receive and distribute broadband connectivity to citizens, employees, industry processes, and innumerable future applications.

The unlicensed spectrum bands are no longer the sole domain of radio hobbyists -- nor are they the "junk bands" for scores of everyday,… more

In this sure-to-be controversial book released April 9, 2004 but not yet available in bookstores, Charles Ferguson attacks just about every sacred shibboleth of today's FCC policy agenda. Why is the U.S. falling behind the rest of the world in deployment of next generation broadband service? Why does the rest of the information technology sector follow Moore's Law but the last-mile broadband network act like a mid-20th century smokestack industry? Look no further than the FCC. … more

The FCC currently has on its plate a half-dozen or more major proposals to give licensed incumbents spectrum rights windfalls worth billions of dollars. Although it is not even close to being the biggest proposed windfall, the 800 MHz rebanding plan, initiated by Nextel, has to date been the most publicized and controversial. Unlike most FCC proceedings that focus on efficiency considerations, this proceeding heavily focuses on the equity of giving an incumbent a spectrum windfall, even if the result… more

U.S. policymakers face a virtual conundrum: how to best incorporate the new Internet Protocol (IP)-centric services, applications, and facilities into the nation's pre-existing legal and public policy construct. Over the next several years, legislators and regulators will find themselves increasingly challenged to make the Internet adapt itself to the already well-defined bricks-and-mortar, services-and-technologies environment that exists today under the Communications Act and other statues.

In this paper and in his presentation, Richard Whitt will explain that trying to… more