FCC crushes free Wi-Fi broadband network
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- “The FCC’s National Broadband Plan agreed with M2Z that 100 million people in the United States remain unconnected to broadband”, says M2Z Networks, going on, “The Plan also found that a significant majority of them are not subscribing to broadband because they simply cannot afford the high cost of broadband.”
The solution could have been a US-wide “free wireless broadband network” as proposed by M2Z, says Fast Company, continuing
M2Z’s trick was going to be to use a spare bit of the radio spectrum, the 2GHz “AWS-3″ band, and earn itself cash by embedding ads in its free Net service as well as licensing out part of the spectrum it would then be controlling for other commercial uses. The entire nationwide system could’ve been up and running inside 10 years, and 5% of M2Z’s revenues would’ve gone straight to the Treasury.
Ignoring all the potential commercial benefits, educational uses, opportunities for new businesses to spring up that utilized the free network, and all sorts of enterprising stuff that isn’t even dreamed up yet, the FCC has finally ceased its deliberations, and has completely denied M2Z’s application. Early on, the plan ran afoul of puritanical concerns about how it could be used for viewing pornography — but the FCC’s intention to filter porn ran into opposition with civil liberties groups.
The FCC is known to have heard complaints about M2Z’s plan from existing wireless carriers. Though M2Z’s network would’ve operated at under 1 mbs peak speeds — meaning it was very slow by today’s standards, and probably snail-like by tomorrow’s — its free pricing may well have tempted many folks away from spending cash with an established ISP.
“Those carriers are now reported to be pleased with the FCC’s decision, though they argue it’s in line with the greater National Broadband Plan”, says the post, adding:
“Whenever that actually gets off the ground.”
Fast Company – M2Z’s Free, Wireless Nationwide Broadband Plan Killed: Thank the FCC, September 2, 2010
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September 6th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
These corporate parasites want everything: Our bodies, the air we breath, our water, our food, our fauna and flora, our homes our lands our roads our air wave. Everything!
Corporations have turn into gigantic parasitic enterprises about to enslave us, destroying our planet and serving no purpose.
But we are going to destroy them all. The end of the corporations is near.
September 6th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
“But we are going to destroy them all. The end of the corporations is near.”
Oh yeah – and like how? Don’t go spouting ridiculous empty threats.
They have us all by the balls and we all know it.
September 6th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
If they have us by the balls… then we piss on them.
September 6th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
This was the right decision. This “free internet” would have been heavily censored for anything remotely objectionable or politically incorrect (maybe even this site would be filtered), and would end up competing with private ISPs.
We would end up with a single company monopoly in areas where private enterprise can’t compete with the gov’t subsidized monopoly (just like Bell has the stranglehold on last-mile copper here.) It’s best for gov’t to set regulations and then step aside for private enterprise to do the job.
September 6th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
This was the right decision. This “free internet” would have been heavily censored for anything remotely objectionable or politically incorrect (maybe even this site would be filtered), and would end up competing with private ISPs.
We would end up with a single company monopoly in areas where private enterprise can’t compete with the gov’t subsidized monopoly (just like Bell has the stranglehold on last-mile copper here.) It’s best for gov’t to set regulations and then step aside for private enterprise to do the job.
——————-
WRONG!
Once again corporations get what they want and destroy something that would have benefitted the greater whole of society. Greed trumps Good again.
September 6th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
” Oh yeah – and like how? Don’t go spouting ridiculous empty threats. ”
He posts things like that for the express purpose of causing this site problems.
If this sounds paranoid, remember that one of Jon’s peers in the media jumped his case
because p2pnet ‘encourages’ violence against corporations and individuals. The ‘evidence’ was
the constant veiled threats posted by that dumbass. It’s a guarantee that everyone of those
‘empty threats’ gets picked up and shoved in the face of someone who would love this site
closed down. No one here takes him seriously, but as long as he keeps posting that crap, it
potentially puts the site and Jon at risk. Makes me wonder if he’s paid to do it.
September 6th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
” WRONG!
Once again corporations get what they want and destroy something that would have benefitted the greater whole of society. Greed trumps Good again. ”
Wrong in what way .. and please, don’t be afraid to be specific. I would love to know your specific reasons
for thinking that poster was wrong. As it is, just posting ‘WRONG’ for the sake of disagreeing, without substance
to back up the assertions is simply a very large methane emission.
Just to be fair ….
” This was the right decision. This “free internet” would have been heavily censored for anything remotely objectionable or politically incorrect (maybe even this site would be filtered), and would end up competing with private ISPs. ”
I don’t necessarily think this assertion is correct either
While it is likely true that puritanical censorship might make such a plan useless, I don’t see anything wrong with
creating competition against private ISP’s. After all, the lack of competition is part of the problem, isn’t it ?
September 6th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Thanks Dredd. So why doesn’t Jon just delete the comment? We know he’s pretty handy with the delete button with anything he doesn’t like.
September 6th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Meant to add that this person sounds like a troll, from what you describe. Classic delete key fodder.
September 6th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Re: “Once again corporations get what they want …” Yes, Corps. may get what they want but they don’t control the Freedom of mother of invention.
Many think ISPs are cats ass and there’s nothing else. Well I beg to differ: WIFI can reach up to 100 miles, that’s miles and Not km. Many have created their own networks and attached them to fiber internet by various means. Go see http://hackaday.com and many DIY sites. Many have used satellites, ham radio, cell frequencies etc. to do same. Some have even used the ground you stand on as a conductor for transmitting all usable frequencies. Others have taken HAARP concept and adapted it to usable internet and other communications.
One ingenious fellow has led wires from his cabin to train rails, they in turn are connect to friend in city who converts them to fiber speeds at his work, a big corporation. Using undocumented protocols corporation doesn’t even see the traffic.
No respectable hacker or blackhole server operator these days pays for internet. It’s not hard to put a clamp on main cable or phone lines and get 10 to 18 Mbps in the city. All courtesy of big Corp.
Every city has towers for Corp. WIFI, be it for cops, taxis, big business or others. They usually run 300 Mbps or faster cards, which translates to 100 Mbps connections … if you know how it’s all FREE. It’s not hard to setup relay stations / repeaters to serve rural areas.
We have a place in fairly out of the way part of Ontario. About center of area between Ottawa, Kingston, Algonquin park, Peterborough. Nearest neighbor is around 20 km away, yet we enjoy a full 80 Mbps on a good day as solar powered repeaters have been installed by locals. On a bad day we still get about 10 Mbps. It started when as a community they got frustrated and totally pissed at Bell 56k modem speeds.
They started with used and junk parts and have evolved into one of the best rural intranets in Canada. It’s so well done you can walk past many of these towers and not see them, and it’s fully encrypted. Each time we go up we bring all the used parts we can carry, usually some pretty high end stuff. You’d be surprised at what people throw away. Therefore, who gives a flying f*k about Corps. when there is FREE internet.
note: if you are not totally self sufficient you won’t make it through the next 20 or more yrs.
Peace
September 6th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
@ IT Guy: ‘We know he’s pretty handy with the delete button with anything he doesn’t like.’
Nine point nine times out of 10, with repetitive spam posts from repetitive posters, and then not often.
Cheers!
September 7th, 2010 at 1:54 am
Okay, this was just disappointing:
@IT guy: Umm….first you ask why Jon doesn’t delete something that bothers you, but then you add a snarky crack about him being “handy with the delete button with anything he doesn’t like”.
Nice attempt at “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. If he WOULD delete the comment, you accuse him of “censorship”, and if he DOESN’T delete it/them, you accuse him of “encouraging violence”.
That’s cute.
@Readers Write (”The corporation’s days are numbered!”)
Oddly enough, he’s got a point, in that it is GOVERNMENTS who stipulate whether the corporation (as a business-structure) exists at all. It’s GOVERNMENT that issues the corporate charters, and grants them privileges such as limited liability, Legal “personhood”, not to mention the “veil” between corporate and “personal” wealth.
So all that would have to happen to stop corporations from getting away with doing horrible things (like, oh say BP’s little “whoopsie” in the Gulf a few months back), would be for government to either change — or REVOKE — those charters.
Actually, it IS worth considering whether the public/society at large want to continue giving certain business-folk the system of privileges that constitute the corporation.
Just like it was worth considering whether the public at large wanted to continue to permit what amounted to a racial caste system in the Pre-1964 “Jim Crow” south.
As to the (purportedly) “free” broadband — feh. Mind-numbingly slow, encrusted with ads, and probably filtered all to hell to comply with the FCC’s “decency” bullshit.
Also, let’s step back for a few seconds and think about the reaction, if Google (for example) attempted to create something like this — Free (as in gratis) broadband, financed by a hyped-up version of Adwords or something. A lot of folks would be falling over themselves denouncing something like that, if the FCC approved it.
I know a lot of folks here really don’t like (or even trust) Google, but it looks to me maybe like “m2z” (whoever they are) are getting a free pass on this one.
The proposal itself sounds horribly slow, ad-encrusted, and (thanks to the Verizon/Google wireless loophole) most likely not “net-neutral” in any meaningful sense of the term).
Personally, I *might* — and I emphasize MIGHT — trust something like this, if it was backed by a 501(c)3/Nonprofit foundation, and was thus, not explicitly required by it’s articles of incorporation to put maximizing profits above any/every other concern (as corporations are, by the nature of how corporate charters are designed).
Having said that, I’d STILL find it abysmally stupid/pointless if it was slow and ad-encrusted, since crappy connectivity does NOTHING to meaningfully bridge that infamous “digital divide” we hear so much about.
Just sayin’, feel free to disagree.
September 7th, 2010 at 9:27 am
@Henry: nobody’s damned either way. I think you took it a bit the wrong way.
September 7th, 2010 at 10:57 am
“No respectable hacker or blackhole server operator these days pays for internet. It’s not hard to put a clamp on main cable or phone lines and get 10 to 18 Mbps in the city. All courtesy of big Corp.
Every city has towers for Corp. WIFI, be it for cops, taxis, big business or others. They usually run 300 Mbps or faster cards, which translates to 100 Mbps connections … if you know how it’s all FREE. It’s not hard to setup relay stations / repeaters to serve rural areas.
We have a place in fairly out of the way part of Ontario. About center of area between Ottawa, Kingston, Algonquin park, Peterborough. Nearest neighbor is around 20 km away, yet we enjoy a full 80 Mbps on a good day as solar powered repeaters have been installed by locals. On a bad day we still get about 10 Mbps. It started when as a community they got frustrated and totally pissed at Bell 56k modem speeds.”
Call me dumb, but you just tap into the connection and you magically have full access to the net? How does that work? I can tap into the cable lines going past my house, but how do I logon without an account? I’m connected to a different company right now. If I don’t pay my bill, they’ll turn my service off. All the physical connections will still be in place, but without an account, the physical connection isn’t going to do squat for me.
September 7th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Re: September 7th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Operative sentences are “No respectable hacker or blackhole server operator these days pays for internet. It’s not hard to put a clamp on main cable or phone lines and get 10 to 18 Mbps in the city. All courtesy of big Corp.”
Due to obvious reasons this is Not the site to reveal such matters. Nor is any site where Corporate Techies gather, such as dslreports. If you can’t figure out the basics then it’s no use trying to explaining it to you. I repeat: “Go see http://hackaday.com and many DIY sites. Many have used satellites, ham radio, cell frequencies etc. to do same. Some have even used the ground you stand on as a conductor for transmitting all usable frequencies.” If you are lucky some good heartened hacker will give you pointers.
Peace
September 7th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
” Thanks Dredd. So why doesn’t Jon just delete the comment? We know he’s pretty handy with the delete button with anything he doesn’t like. ”
hmmm ..
” @Henry: nobody’s damned either way. I think you took it a bit the wrong way. ”
hmmm again.
There really aren’t too many ways to take that statement .. it seems pretty clear, cut-and -dry.
If you’ve been here for a while, you would no that the first statement is simply not true. The exceptions are few,
and well reasoned ( i.e. mister I’heart’CP has no place here ). The message is pretty clear.
Accusing Jon of crass censorship, in a roundabout way.
All the long timers know better, except for a few that post just for the sake of causing trouble.
They get deleted for their buffoonery, get all ‘butt-hurt’ over it, and use a different alt to whine
about ‘free speech’ and ‘censorship’.
Since your IT Guy alt is fairly recent, I’m willing to bet you fall into that category. You use a new ‘alt’,
play ‘nice’ for a few weeks, then out comes the whinging. It’s a shame, you’re clearly not stupid, and
can make sense when you want to.
Please, keep making sense and drop the Jon bashing and someone might just take you seriously, I
nearly did. I guess that’s a ‘Double-Dumbass’ on me.