Whether or not you’re in Austin for SXSW, click here and sign a petition to show your support for open networks!

Events like South by Southwest can highlight the limitations of wireless Internet access. Put a large number of techies in the same city and as they all try to tweet, share photos, and stay connected they can quickly saturate Internet connections–leading to websites not loading, messages not being sent, and connections dropping.

Engineers have already solved this problem–but there are legal challenges as well as technical challenges. Policymakers in DC have to make sure that FCC rules allow people to take advantage of new wireless technologies that are already being built. They need to set WiFi free.

On Wednesday, December 12, 2012, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held an oversight hearing on the implementation of spectrum auctions in an effort to meet the growing demand for wireless broadband services and fund a nationwide public safety network.  The five FCC Commissioners testified before the panel on the status of the auctions and their interpretations on how the auctions will free up additional spectrum and promote competition.  These auctions were part of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.  For background on the spectrum provisions included in this legislation, read Harold Feld’s recap of the legislation from February of this year.

We have all kinds of reality-challenged folks in Washington. We got those who believe that we need to go back to the gold-standard and abolish the Federal Reserve. We got those who think vaccinations cause learning autism. To this we can now add “the folks who think we can keep finding federal spectrum to auction forever.”

Last month, we warned about how some folks in Congress (with support of the usual suspects) wanted to get some really bad law on the future of wireless included in the Payroll Tax Cut Extension. The proposed law would have:

a. Stopped the FCC from having any kind of net neutrality conditions on any future wireless services the FCC would create by auctioning more wireless spectrum licenses.

The PK in the Know podcast has been off for the past few weeks so that we could make technical changes to the back end.  This will result in a better feed, but  unfortunately it also means that the feeds have changed.  Please update your feeds by clicking here to subscribe via iTunes, and clicking here to subscribe via other readers.

But now, on to this week’s podcast!

Background:  Today, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) along with 40 of their colleagues sent a letter to the House and Senate negotiators on the payroll tax bill supporting the use of unlicensed spectrum in any discussions.

The letter is here.

The following statement is attributed to Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge:

“Rep. Eshoo and Chairman Issa and their colleagues have made a persuasive case for making certain that unlicensed spectrum is included in any larger spectrum agreements used to pay for the extension of payroll tax relief.

The following statement is attributed to Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge:

“We congratulate the FCC on its announcement today that it has certified a database and device capable of using the TV white spaces. This marks a new era in open wireless technology, which already contributes $50 billion every year to the American economy. 

“The newly certified ‘Super WiFi’ will increase the capacity of these networks tenfold, improving the wireless broadband experience for all Americans while creating new opportunities for innovation and job creation.”

The following is attributed to Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge:

“We are very gratified that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has started to begin testing a crucial element for the use of the “white spaces” between digital TV channels (white spaces).  The Commission said that on Sept. 19 it would begin a 45-day trial of the first of nine databases that will allow new devices using the white spaces to operate without interfering with existing broadcasters.

“It’s vitally important for our economy, for innovation and for consumers that development of devices built around white spaces go forward.  This trial is an important first step to a new era of communications and other technologies.  We commend FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for putting this process in motion.”

A copy of the FCC order is here.

No sooner had I posted my wonkish critique of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score for S.911, the Rockefeller Public Safety/Spectrum Bill over on my Wetmachine blog (“Where snark meets wonk and the sparks fly!”) when Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) turns around and drops a new version of the plan as part of his debt ceiling bill (Best version of Debt Ceiling bill I could find here).

On today’s podcast, we discuss the time traveling spectrum bill, monkey copyright, Comcast running into trouble with data caps, and updates from the Creators Freedom Project.  We also discuss Newport Television’s attempt to silence criticism from Free Press by sending them a bogus DMCA takedown notice with Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright.

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