Obama pushes expanding high-speed wireless service

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:07pm EST

Jan 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for expanding high-speed wireless services to meet the voracious appetite of consumers and businesses, a task that could be tough because airwaves are a finite resource and demand is almost limitless.

"Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans," Obama said during his annual State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress.

"This isn't just about a faster Internet and fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age," he said, noting farmers in rural areas can sell their crops abroad and doctors can chat with patients via video.

The Obama administration has endorsed making 500 megahertz of wireless airwaves, or spectrum, available over the next decade to meet the growing demand for broadband services, including the widely popular Apple (AAPL.O) iPad and proliferation of smartphones.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN254611020110126

[trumad]

1. Love it

[madrchsod]

2. he wants 500 when the Europeans are going to 800 in the next few years

our download speeds are even further behind our competitors

[mwooldri]

3. Depends where the megahertz is.

500 Mhz in good spectrum is better than 800 Mhz in garbage. As with the digital TV transition, turned out low VHF - garbage for digital TV, UHF - coveted frequency space.

Turns out that Verizon's successful bid for TV spectrum freed up by the transition may also be good for them: they have the 700Mhz band cleared out pretty much for themselves. Sprint has the 2.5 Ghz band but it's crowded, even though they got more bandwidth than Verizon. So in terms of raw speed Sprint's Wimax can match Verizon's LTE but if there's too many users things just will slooooowwww down.

[madrchsod]

10. thanks...

[Turborama]

11. speedtest.net have some very interesting and surprising stats

Check it out: http://speedtest.net/global.php#0

I regularly use it to see how my satellite connection is doing: http://speedtest.net/

[Gregorian]

4. I think this is crucially important. More so than most people may realize.

Broadband is all but nonexistent outside of the metro areas. I've suffered for years over this. I'm presently paying $180 per month just to get broadband where I am. It's a mile from cable, yet no other broadband. It's robbery. But I cannot live without my connection to the world.

[midnight]

5. I liked hearing about this and wish it was a country wide expansion...

[russspeakeasy]

6. They "endorsed" it, WTF. ??

I'll bet they "endorse" full employment too. That's
a hell of a lot easier than actually doing something about it.
How about Veterans care? Endorse that too?

[Turborama]

8. How about Veterans care?

2009: http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2009/02/huge_increase_in_veterans_bene.html

2010: http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4236

2011: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/01/obama-pledges-unprecedented-commitment-to-military-families/1

[intheflow]

7. The internet junkie in me is excited at this prospect.

:bounce:

The paranoid conspiracy theorist in me fears it's only so they can spy on us more efficiently. :tinfoilhat:

[sarcasmo]

9. I like the sounds of this, it sure beats the killswitch bullshit.