[time-nuts] They're baaaack!

[gary]

There is also a proposal to pay commercial TV stations to move together 
as a cluster, then chop off part of the TV band for wireless. The 
current market simply will never fill the allotted DTV spectrum. 
[Cable/satellite/internet-streaming filled the void.] It is a bit 
nauseating to pay the broadcasts for spectrum that they never paid for 
in the first place.

While I don't favor paying the broadcasters, I like everything else 
about this approach. Further, I'd get rid of VHF DTV all together. In 
the transition period, we did just fine when they were all on UHF. Save 
VHF for public service. I'd even grant the old VHF users an extra 
site/channel or two to make up for lost range.

Currently the wireless companies in the US, at least the two major GSM 
providers, are dumping the 2G service to recover that spectrum. It is 
probably cheaper to migrate the 2G customers to 3G, then convert the old 
spectrum to LTE, than to buy new spectrum for LTE.

As I have stated here before, there is already a satellite mobile 
service with ground transmitters, namely XM and Sirius. That system 
works today, and one of the bands is completely redundant after the 
merger. Let Light Squared pay off Sirius XM if they need a functional 
band. They could use the money.