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FCC: Free Wireless Internet Services Won't Interfere

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But who's going to BUY the spectrum?

jskrenes

Oct 13, 2008, 9:35 AM
I always like the idea of getting something I don't have to pay for, but I also know that somewhere along the line somebody has to pay for it. And I have yet to have these questions answered: who is going to spend billions of dollars to win the next spectrum when the current winnings have yet to be developed? After the company wins the spectrum, how are they going to get the extra billions to deploy the network? And how are they going to recoup those costs when the service is free?
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KoldPhusion

Oct 13, 2008, 10:10 AM
We as the taxpayers will pay for it somehow, someway. So it will never actually be "free". It's the sad way of this country now =(
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rmcnamee

Oct 13, 2008, 11:08 AM
I'm pretty sure Google has wanted to purchase the white spaces for quite some time now, and they will pay for the same way they pay for the rest of their free services: advertising.
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jskrenes

Oct 13, 2008, 2:29 PM
I just don't know if the advertising model will work in this situation. The big reason that advertising keeps Google profitable is because they didn't have to lay millions of miles of fiber optic cable.

YouTube has been an albatross of sorts for Google, so they obviously don't have the Midas touch with every one of their business ventures. And given that municipal wifi nearly bankrupted Earthlink, I just don't see how advertising revenue will cover all the costs.
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aTextbookTypo

Oct 13, 2008, 10:05 PM
people who use the free net are gonna have slow slow laggy speeds and everyone will fight with eachother for latency... you'll get fed up to the point to where you will actually want to pay to get better quality... and lastly, you'll probably be barraged with ridiculous amounts of pop-ups and adware... that's probably how the advertisement payup will work...
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cellularconnection

Oct 13, 2008, 1:38 PM
but they will only tax the rich, because we all know they have no way to write off/avoid taxes and there is NO chance that it will be shoved off on the middle class and working poor like every other "free" initiative... right? 🙄
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jskrenes

Oct 13, 2008, 3:41 PM
Since the government is auctioning off the space, I don't see how they could tax people for the service, unless we have to have a "free broadband rescue package" or something. Though the feds could subsidize the free broadband. They won't tax the rich, they'll just tax the evil cellular companies that are audacious enough to try and make a profit.

Which, if you're smart, begs the question of where the cellular carriers are going to come up with that money. You know they won't take it out of executive pay or shareholder dividends (and they shouldn't), and they probably won't cut other benefits either. So get ready for a 'free broadband' surcharge on your cell phone bill.
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cellularconnection

Oct 13, 2008, 4:20 PM
I just think we found a 2010/2012 "Hot topic" issue...
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