Redistributing Spectrum Rights
The amount of data transfer needed to satiate today’s wireless device users is expanding rapidly. Major wireless service providers have indicated that their largest concern was acquiring a larger portion of the wireless spectrum to channel the growing stream of data that their customers demand. In order to keep the United States at the forefront of mobile technology, the government plans on holding incentive auctions as soon as 2014 to try to coax television broadcasters to give up spectrum rights to wireless providers. Many television broadcasters with spectrum rights are concerned what will happen to them if they do not volunteer to participate in these auctions.
The base problem that this issue stems from is clearly a network structure problem. Both wireless providers and television broadcasters have certain amounts of data that they want to transmit to the populace. The problem that they face is that there are a fixed number of pathways, the spectra, between them and the people, and each path can only carry a certain amount of data. Currently, the difficulty is finding how the paths should be allocated between wireless providers and television broadcasters, and how to encourage the wireless providers and television broadcasters to accept this allocation.
Network theory plays a dominant role in the government’s solution to this growing issue. The government leverages its role as the sole intermediary between the television broadcasters and the wireless providers to facilitate the redistribution of the rights to various spectra.
With control over rights to different parts of the spectrum, the government limits the television broadcasters to not having any other paths through which to sell their parts of the spectrum, decreasing the power of the broadcasters severely. The structure of the trading network explains the broadcasters’ fear of resisting the government’s plan; the broadcasters are in a position with much less power than the government. Wireless service providers also find themselves in a less powerful position than the government, as the government is their only source of spectrum rights.
The government’s disproportionate power in this situation brings into question whether the rights should be traded freely between companies, or if self-interest of companies would prevent an ideal allocation of the spectrum.
-ipm7
Article:
http://www.eweek.com/networking/fcc-to-auction-off-broadcast-spectrum-to-wireless-industry/
Additional Source:
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0928/DOC-316527A1.pdf
Today’s technology has change so fast as we can see from tube to LCD and then LED we can see the change of that appearance of the display view, the quality of the color and spectrum very details.
Yes David, you are correct, and in future we me expect more fascinating technology improvement.
You might have notice that the new Mobile Phone Displays are now flexible and unbreakable.