

FCC approves 'white spaces' spectrum usage for 'wi-fi on steroids' - fromedome
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/fcc-approves-wi-fi-on-steroids-good-news-for-consumers-bad-news-for-telcos

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lunchbox
This is great news for consumers and for the companies that will make
innovative use of this spectrum. (Dolly Parton's expert opinion
notwithstanding.)

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Prrometheus
This bit of deregulation will certainly open up a new market.

Sometimes I wonder if broadcast TV would still exist if it weren't for federal
law. They should auction off its part of the spectrum and see if anybody is
still willing to pay to keep it in existence.

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nazgulnarsil
so can i expect a wireless router that actually works now? I hate standard wi-
fi.

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wmf
I wouldn't necessarily expect white space devices to work that well. Since
700MHz signals propagate so well you'll have to worry about interference
coming from a block away instead of next door. And if the device mistakenly
thinks it detects a TV signal it will shut off.

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kirubakaran
Big good news for startups.

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fromedome
Yep. Unless telcos dominate this niche, too.

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kirubakaran
How can they dominate in an unregulated space?

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mnemonicsloth
A lot of monopolies arise in unregulated spaces:

\- MSFT and the PC OS market in the 1990s

\- CATV operators in the 1970s

\- AT&T in the first third of the 20th cent.

\- Electric utilities (at first, GE and Westinghouse) over the same period

\- The German chemical industry (again, over roughly the same period)

The Econ-101 explanation is that a competent first mover in an industry that
delivers an especially high return to scale can cut prices fast enough that no
new competitor in the market could ever recoup the cost of entry. So nobody
bothers, and the monopoly is free to set prices until the government steps in
to bring down the price or nationalize the firm.

In other words, most of the entities we traditionally associate with the term
"monopoly" arise naturally and then get special legal status to recapture some
of the value they generate.

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fromedome
So far I've seen no business models for this new technology. So who knows who
is going to dominate. But you can't rule out incumbents now or in the future.

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DTrejo
YESSS!

