M2Z
In addition to the white
spaces and 700
MHz issues I've mentioned recently, there's another spectrum
matter that I keep bumping into and wondering about: M2Z.
This
is a bid to offer wireless broadband to all, if the venture can get the
spectrum for free:
The company in a filing
with FCC says if it was to get the soon to be vacated 2155 MHz
to 2175 MHz spectrum for free for 15 years, it would offer universal
broadband access nationwide, and in exchange it would hand over 5% of
its gross revenues from its premium broadband service. In addition, it
will give free 512 kilobits per second wireless access to one and all,
which will be supported by advertising.
I can't tell how
their petition
is being received at the FCC. For political reasons, they're
promising an “automatic, default blocking of access to pornographic,
obscene, and/or indecent material” and a secondary network for public safety. But they're also
promising a new nationwide wireless broadband system, and rumor has it
that M2Z has $400 million in venture capital to implement their plans.
M2Z stands for “move the cost of data transport to
zero.”
Daily Wireless says that the block of
spectrum that M2Z wanted (20MHz of bandwidth) has been taken out of an
FCC auction — because “The FCC has decided that “free” nationwide
broadband wireless (and
exclusive use) is not an idea whose time has come.” I don't have confirmation of this — expert advice welcome.
Big day at USC's Annenberg Center today. Very interesting people — many projects going on — very glad I went.
Comments
One Response to “M2Z”
Got something to say?
Susan I am sure to an outsider the M2Z petition looks great, however the holes and deceptions are many. I caution your support until you look into the matters a little further. I would direct your attention to the people associated with this matter, and their pasts, and most likely their future intentions have always been toward BUSINESS. The emotions are just really high about the USA being in 21st place in the world in broadband penetration as we recently got kicked out of the top 20 by Estonia. The service M2Z plans on offering will do little to change this. They are just pulling a fast one on the American Public.
A couple of high points but by no means the whole problem is they are backed by Venture Capital Partners and VC's are always looking for a very quick, and very large return on investment or ROI. The small amount of money might seem large to you, but as someone who has a better understanding than most of the true cost of what it would take to actually build out what M2Z promises I can tell you this is not anywhere near enough money, their previous backgrounds in Internet Startups goes very little down the road of building a National Access Network. The other high point that is blatantly wrong is the speeds of only 384K as being called high speed. Mr. Muleta was part of the problem of the same FCC that placed such a low speed as the mark of success while in many parts of the world it is far more like in the Megs. Recently some in the FCC and Congress have started questioning if this definition is currently still adequate. The advertisements the free users would be required to watch will make 384K seem like dial-up. The worst matter is the amount of the vital radio resource or spectrum Mr. Muleta publicly would be used for the free service are a very small percentage and stated when being interviewed recently in Wi_FI Network News or WNN, he (Mr. Muleta) stated only 1.25MHz of the 20MHz would be for the free users and the remaining 15Mhz would be for the premium users who pay for service.
So do yourself a service and look past the hype and see just what M2Z is up to, well that is unless you are a employee trolling here to drum up support for this crime that is about be committed against the American public which I hope you aren't as I would be wasting my time and efforts. I realize you are probably one of the many Americans who is ashamed that Estonia has better Internet Access than the USA, and was desperately looking for someone to do something about it. Keep Looking M2Z is a scam..
The Free Speech concerns you brought up and about what you call “Political Pressure” to screen objectionable content is far from the real important issues we all face when looking deeper into the fraud M2Z is trying to commit. Not getting free porno is that really such an important issue to you, when in my mind the lies these people are telling is really where the PORN is occurring because I feel we are all getting F'd over by a bunch of Big Business Backed Corp Guys again…
We need to all stand up and tell our government enough of the Corporate Agenda dictating policy, and enough lip service about fixing the problem with half hearted efforts like this. The recnt AT7T merger had such wasted comments as well since they agreed to offer Broadband to virtually all of their service areas by end of this year. This implies some new action, when in reality they are already in compliance since they have signed a resale agreement with WildBlue a Satellite Broadband Provider taht will serve all the areas needed to meet compliance,a dn will drive no newer lower cost alternatives as a result of allowing the merger of At7T and BellSouth. ia ma sure the FCC knows this as I can't believe they are that stupid, but they had to tell the American People that things would improve because of the merger when in actuality things will most likely get worse. The real reason the merger was allowed was the $300M they spent in lobbying efforts in the last few years.
Bubba