The second digital revolution is well under way.  With the increasing preponderance of smartphones and near pan-availability of Wi-Fi networks, the Internet — in combination with a new generation of sophisticated mobile devices — is once again changing the way we live and communicate.  Moreover, it is also once again challenging us to reconsider the role that the government should play in the private sector.The problem is that the digital revolution has run into a barricade.With the explosive popularity of gadgets like the iPhone, which are essentially hand-held PC’s, the very finite spectrum of wireless frequencies available for use with these devices is quickly being stretched towards its maximum capacity.  For the wireless industry, it may indeed be said that the sky — or more accurately, the ‘air’ — is, in fact, the limit.Particularly, as these devices evolve to send and transmit ever-larger packages of data—like songs or high-resolution pictures and videos, a number of wireless companies are beginning to fret about the looming possibility of running out of airwave space.A crammed airwave domain could have disastrous effects, claim many wireless companies, leading to heavily-congested networks that would in turn frustrate customers and put a damper on new innovations.  Which is why a number of these companies are turning to the government in hopes of forcing other sectors with airwave rights — like television and radio — to give up their claims to the spectrum in order to enlarge their own slice of the invisible but highly lucrative pie in the sky.

less than 84 day(s) - Tuesday December,29 2009 @ 03:04 AM
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