Comments on: Google wants more airwaves for broadband

By: Brian - New York, NY

Brian - New York, NY — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:49:59 +0000

Would be great if only intelligent people would post on these communication boards. Thx

By: John, Chicago, IL

John, Chicago, IL — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:01:31 +0000

I don’t understand what the people below me are complaining about.

Its unused broadband, lets use it and faster mobile broadband.

What is the downside?

By: Trevor NY

Trevor NY — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:30:33 +0000

you still need to buy a device and probably a service and none of that will be from google – telcos will provide the infrastructure and google will provide the software for the devices and some services.

google just wants the star trek like device and communication in place and they can write the apps. they want it to be open, so there are no restrictions on what you can do. but google wont own any airwaves. that’ll be att and verizon.

By: SAM, MIAMI,FLORIDA

SAM, MIAMI,FLORIDA — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:44:22 +0000

lATELY, WHEN I SEE GOOGLE TRYING MANIPULATING POLITICIANS WITH THEIR LOBBYST FOR THEIR BEST INTEREST, I SEE AT&T 20 YEARS AGO, SO WATCH OUT!. I GUESS WE HAVE TO WAIT A FEW MORE YEARS TO FIGURED OUT WHAT THEY MEANT WHEN THEY SAID DO NOT BE EVIL TO YOUR CUSTOMERS.

By: Dave, Pittsburgh, PA.

Dave, Pittsburgh, PA. — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:32:44 +0000

The transition to HDTV had trouble getting traction until 9-11 came to pass. Congress cried “We must provide more radio frequencies to emergency services!” and so the February 2009 mandate was foisted on the public.
New York’s emergency responders DID in fact lose communications…because they located all of their systems on the World Trade Center towers. With no backup systems (they cost money) the fallacy of putting all of one’s eggs into one basket, or all of your comm systems in one location, became exposed.
Analog television occupies a wide spectrum, from 54 to 88 MHz, 174 to 213 MHz, and again from 490 MHZ or so up to the north of 600 MHz. The lower frequencies penetrate buildings poorly, are subject to atmospheric interference, and require physically long antennas.
While HDTV does deliver a superior quality picture, in effect forcing the industry’s hand is a win-win for the Feds, as they stand to make billions auctioning off spectrum for whatever purpose.
And a lot of people in rural areas will be forced to buy their TV from cable or satellite providers because the digital signals, which are located in the current UHF portion of the TV spectrum, are unable to follow the curvature of the Earth as signals at the current analog frequencies do.
By the way, has anyone seen any portable, battery-powered TVs for HDTV? I pray for those who live in Tornado Alley, where battery-powered analog TVs currently save lives.

By: andy,tx

andy,tx — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:20:35 +0000

if google really want the spectrum, they should have bid higher…rathar than saving their money and aiming for white space….

By: John, Medford, NY

John, Medford, NY — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:13:39 +0000

So does Google, et al, believe that the white space was arbitrarily created by the FCC and Borodacst engineers? It is there for a reason. When you make 10’s of millions of TV sets a year and have thousands of broadcast signals radiated at the same time, dozens in the same environment, you have to have tolerances or “buffers” so that interference is not the result. Maybe the IT community needs to get a few generations of real-world RF experience before they start proclaiming that have a better way to communicate.

By: Matt - Raleigh, NC

Matt - Raleigh, NC — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:01:25 +0000

Google claims their mantra is “don’t be evil” – that’s getting harder and harder to believe. How about “do some good” instead?

By: Tim, Red Bank, NJ

Tim, Red Bank, NJ — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:33:12 +0000

I’m still trying to figure out when people will realize, that Google is one of the most dangerous companies in business today. I can’t wait for the day when the EU and US oversight committees wake up one day and realize that they’ve been fighting to control all the wrong enemies: Microsoft (EU, US); Apple (EU); XM/Sirius (US); etc, etc.

Do No Evil – what a bloody joke.

By: stross la.

stross la. — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:48:00 +0000

i thought they were freeing airspace for emergency use?(that’s what it was billed as in the beginning)shame on me for believing.
ps i have ocean front property for sale in az.

By: Alex, San Francisco, CA

Alex, San Francisco, CA — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:58:14 +0000

Google::Wolf in sheep clothing