rstrandb
Premium
join:2003-04-17
Albany, GA
 ·Mediacom
| Another revenue source
If they lease that bandwidth out and use the money to defray tuition expense, I think this is a great idea. However since this does include government involvement, I'm sure it will get screwed up somehow.
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Remember....beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes straight to the bone. |
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rfnut
Premium
join:2002-04-27
Fisher, IL
·Mediacom
| many colleges have been leasing their excess airtime to companies that run ( or used to ) wireless cabletv for many years. In the MMDS heyday it was not unusual to pay upwards of 50,000 a year to lease the airtime. Throw in the equipment is usually provided free to the college and this was a good little revenue source for the technology sections of the colleges.
I am glad to see the spectrum was not taken away. I work with several ITFS partners who utilize at least part of their spectrum for educational programming and to have it sold out from under them would not be very nice. |
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vic102482
Premium
join:2002-04-30
Upper Marlboro, MD
1 edit | reply to rstrandb
said by rstrandb  :
If they lease that bandwidth out and use the money to defray tuition expense, I think this is a great idea. However since this does include government involvement, I'm sure it will get screwed up somehow.
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Schools lower tution?:o Ha!:p Dont make me laugh, just more money for them to put in the vault and give to the dean.
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I tie a rope around my penis and jump from a tree, don't you wanna grow up to be just like me!!!! |
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ksw_92
join:2001-05-13
La Verne, CA
 ·Verizon FIOS
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to rstrandb
This band has always been the red-haired stepchild of the licensed spectrum group...lots of failed commercial ventures (Tele-TV?), lots of scammers and charlatans promising naive educators the world and leaving them with the poopy end of the stick.
ITFS folks beat back the cell phone carriers with their 3G spectrum grab back in 99-2000 when Europe was kooky with that big flop of an idea. This ruling beats down Intel this time around (read the comments filed). The push was for WiMAX or similar wireless MAN systems (cha-ching! for Intel, they thought), fully owned by commercial interests (cha-ching! for Sprint -- they filed comments too). Intel really tripped on its own crank this time and even apologised to several members of Congress after the ruling for their over-the-top lobbying efforts.
The eligibility ruling is just a small step towards the re-purposing of the band though. There are still a lot of technical issues to be resolved. Lots of ITFS users are still xmitting 6MHz NTSC; this has to be morphed into a digital system so that the band can be segmented into one-way (i.e. broadcast video) and two-way systems (i.e. WiMAX). The FCC has also warned license holders that they're going to be watching the utilization of the band very closely now. No more squatting on that channel group Mr. Podunk Unified School District!
The next few years should prove interesting. The key will be getting the commercial interests and the educational license holders to work intelligently together...
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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to rstrandb
said by rstrandb :
If they lease that bandwidth out and use the money to defray tuition expense, I think this is a great idea. However since this does include government involvement, I'm sure it will get screwed up somehow.
Uhh, have any of the religious/educational institutions that own this spectrum been applying the leasing proceeds to child molestation verdicts?
Calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
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