The Diane Rehm Show

It is really sad that the drshow keeps having these transparent shills on the show. Scott Cleland is a cable shill: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Scott_Cleland
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=2007817

He talks about "selective facts" and then claims that the cable companies are in competition? Not with each other, that's for sure.

I find it concerning that there is a foundation of thought that we are entitled to internet or wifi access. The example of children doing their homework research at a McDonald's is meant to engender sympathy for these children, but I ask, what about public libraries? What about the computer labs any many, many schools - even in poorer school districts? What incentive will there be for an individual to work hard in order to afford the comfort and convenience of in-home internet/wifi if it is provided to them for free? I ask you, do we really believe that once people are connected at home, it will only be used for intellectual purposes? We should have open hands towards the poor and give them access to the means to escape poverty; not just give expensive technical perks for free without any accountability. It is human nature: if you are given something for free for too long, we often either take it for granted or hate the giver. Please let us focus on expanding our struggling libraries instead of making sure that there is a smartphone and wifi in every home.

Please talk about CHATTANOOGA TN for an excellent example of how Internet service can be done well.

Who are the lobbyists in favor or against the government wireless initiative? Why are we only hearing this morning about the large corporations; there has to be others who may or may not benefit.

The open spectrum will help foster competition but the real problem is the restrictions the bandwidth providers put on usage. I run one of the largest free WiFi networks in the US called Wireless Ypsi. We buy bandwidth from large carriers like Comcast and AT&T. The problem we have had in growing is now carriers like Comcast DO NOT allow us to purchase Internet service and then offer access to that connection for free.

It would be like we buy water from the local water company and we want to offer that water for free. The carriers like Comcast say we can't offer the water, the Internet for free, even though we pay for the bandwidth at commercial rates with no discount.

Thus having access to low frequency bandwidth would be huge for us as it allows us to get bandwidth from other carriers that don't restrict how people use the service.

in some ideal world, the last mile of all 6 (electric, gas, water, sewer, coax, twisted pair) of your home's connections should be publicly owned (4 of mine are). Likewise adding a wireless wide area wifi 7th public connection makes sense to your house, then you buy your services from whoever, they just have to use the public last mile. So if you want to buy only green power from ND windmills you can and so forth for each service including internet.

I hope we'll be able to move away from the narrow path of assuming that market-based solutions are always better. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they're not. When we're doing something utterly new, as a nationwide wi-fi capability would be, we need to think in entirely new ways about additional alternatives, combinations of market + community (or government) partnerships. The development of wi-fi capability offers yet another opportunity to build a new model, a new way of thinking about telecommunications.

There's also the problem that, for many of us, the mere mention of Verizon and ATT induces consumer rage! I live in an are where Verizon has a monopoly -- no competition whatsoever allowed -- and whose bills for landline usage increase monthly. They are inexcusable monopolists, certainly compared with the service given by our electrical coops in this Texas area, coops that are now also providing us with excellent wi-fi at a reasonable price. So the idea that America lives or dies depending on capitalism is, at best, an idea that is badly out of date. We need to be more open-minded.

Hi, I would like to know how this will help the rural communities in Eastern Oregon, Idaho and other places out west that do not have much commercial support? I drive every summer from San Antonio to Oregon and camp along the way. Many times there is no rural internet support in small towns out there. This should be a priority like they do with the "old" telephone network, maybe through a small use tax on the overall network.

The guy who couldn't get his digital converter box to work probably lives to far from broadcast towers OR followed the cable companies' deceptive ads during the digital transition and attached an non-amplified indoor dipole(i.e. rabbit ears) antenna.

When he failed to pick up distant signals he blamed to box. I bought an HDTV a year before the 2006 digital transition and with an amp'ed antenna get twice as many stations including some more distant ones. Some of the previously snowy stations became some of my best digital stations.

I have never paid for TV which is part of why my retirement savings are well funded.

What needs to be done is have the FCC raise their guidelines on RF radiation. Wireless poses a health hazard to all of us. In the 1960s RF radiation was beamed into the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and people died of cancer. This long term exposure is slowly going to affect the health of all of us! Our children are most at risk. Wake up America. Wireless is also making us at risk for hacking by bad people. Go back to hard wiring. There are over 2,000 studies of the bad effects of RF radiation (non-thermal). Google "the dark side of smart meters and www.thepowerfilm.com.

There are over 2000 reputable studies showing biological impact in your body from the radio frequency radiation(RFR) that is produced from the wireless technology. The World Health Organization rated RFR as a possible carcinogen in the same category as the pesticide DDT, leaded gas, and chloroform. The government continues to rely on outdated information from the 1990’s that incorrectly concluded that if pulsed radiofrequency radiation(RFR) doesn’t create heat then it has no biological impact. We now know that this is not true. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is charged with making the rules concerning RFR health related issues, but their mission is to promote commerce, not monitor health. The General Accounting Office, in 2012, recommended that these regulations be reviewed and questioned if the FCC should be responsible for deciding the regulations. The concerns that have been expressed by many reputable doctors, scientists and institutions cannot be dismissed and is a warning that we should not proceed with this FCC proposal.

The wireless industry is the the new frontier. The perfect storm has been created and real game changers have the opportunity to offer solutions.
Technology changes everything! The time is ripe for competitive licenced Wifi networks to create solutions, and they are. The major carrier's business model evolves around wired architecture that was designed primarily for voice. The United States is ranked #18 in the world for wireless technology because the U.S. was one of the first to build a
cellular network which is now out dated for data service. Wifi needs to grow from 3% to 30% of our wireless services. Individuals profited hugely from the cellular frontier and now we have new opportunity with the data explosion. These New Opportunities can benefit new business, competition and individuals! deborah.mangini@gmail.com

Limited liability is an awesome power granted by the State to some collections of peo, , ple for their benefit and for the public good. The latter purpose is usually not considered except insofar as corporate privilege seems to be very good for the economy (to the extent to which those gains are well-distributed), but in some cases it can mean more---fo, r example, even someone owing a lot to the phone company had better be able to call emergency services' numbers gratis.

The web is increasingly a necessary (or all-but-) tool for exercising the rights and meeting the obligations of citizenship, and a necessity for much of modern life. We have never had a laissez-faire society: from our beginnings as a nation the state and federal governments have been part of the mechanism by which things deemed public goods---be they roads, the post, or killing natives (always) and union organisers (when they got in the way of the powerful

Limited liability is an awesome power granted by the State to some collections of people for their benefit and for the public good. The latter purpose is usually not considered except insofar as corporate privilege seems to be very good for the economy (to the extent to which those gains are well-distributed), but in some cases it can mean more---for example, even someone owing a lot to the phone company had better be able to call emergency services' numbers gratis.

The web is increasingly a necessary (or all-but-) tool for exercising the rights and meeting the obligations of citizenship, and a necessity for much of modern life. We have never had a laissez-faire society: from our beginnings as a nation the state and federal governments have been part of the mechanism by which things deemed public goods---be they roads, the post, or killing natives (always) and union organisers (when they got in the way of the powerful)---government has been involved, either directly or by requiring its creatures the corporations to justify their existence by contributing directly to the perceived public good.

AT&T does not provide access where I work. I use the free wifi which can allow a visual/audio interface, or free texting, as well as unlimited access to the internet. My sister insisted on upgrading my phone to an AT&T marginally smart phone. I do not need the data service but AT&T insist on charging for a data plan I will never use. That's not service, that's domination. AT&T is not in the service industry. The phone comes with 20+ aps which cannot be uninstalled but exist to provide access to other for pay services, If I buy the phone, I should choose the service. I could text over the wifi for free but this phone prevents wifi use without phone service. Domination, not service, is AT&T's credo.