Chairman of the FCC Kevin Martin

Eh…. Not really. Wow that was by far the longest title yet. Well so it happened today, we all new it was going to happen, the 700mhz frequency was approved today by the FCC . The 700mhzland has been long sought after frequency for the great distances it can reach. Since Google wants to melt there doughy little hands into every aspect of every market they said, “Hey lets buy a Radio frequency”. Don’t quote them on that, they probably said something a lot more sophisticated and in-depth.
Now all in all this approval really isn’t that bad, but only if the FCC keeps to its “Open Access” plan. But the FCC being a part of our government we never know who’s hand might get greased to push a vote or favor through. A total of 60 megahertz will be auctioned off, with twenty-two of them “open,” and another 10 set aside for a “national public safety” network. The auctioning off of the frequency is expected to raise as much as $15 billion for the federal treasury.

The auction begins sometime early next year, and so it begins…..

I wanted to give a little info out about Chairman Kevin Martin, and who he has worked for, and what he did in the past. Here is the excerpt about him from the official FCC website:

“Chairman Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001. He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.

Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.

Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.”

Now Chairman Martin is no virgin when it comes to ethic scandals, does anyone remember the Bellsouth & AT&T merger?

I never try to mix politics with technology but sometimes they just mix , and a lot of the time it ends up in a negative manner. So that is why I am so skeptical of this “Open Access” plan. Now I am not saying Google even has the cash flow to play the game, if it stays open I hope they have the cash on hand. I just hope the FCC plays nice with everyone and does not play favors.

Can anyone give me a reason to not think like this?

For me WIMAX and the whole idea of broadcasted open public free wireless is a thing of beauty. I live for anything that’s wireless and free like slurpee’s . Granted the proposed 37 city wireless project is probably the biggest yet. But don’t be a doubter some of the biggest names in the biz are backing the project like Cisco and Big Blue.

The project is estimated to cost $85-150 million. It will be broadcasted through the silicon valley area, the first test nodes will be in Palo Alto and San Carlos, they will start later this year on testing. I pray for the boys up in the Silicon Forest to start a project like this. The final network will probably start construction around 2008. Google where ya at on the funding??? Oh I forgot they are to busy trying to bribe the FCC…cough cough.