FCC Chief: U.S. Faces ‘Innovators’ Dilemma’
Most of the big-ticket speakers at the Web 2.0 Summit this week gave talks that were carefully guarded, offering little deep insight into the tumultuous state of the fast-evolving tech industry out of necessary trade-secrecy. Not FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who wasn’t too subtle about implying that he’s got a lot on his plate and it’s tough to digest.
Do We Really Need A 2nd Broadcast System?
Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone said this week that the carrier now believes that the best way of handling some of the expected demand for video on its new super-fast broadband network is broadcasting — that is, pumping one signal to many users simultaneously rather than millions of signals one at a time. If Verizon Wireless is thinking this way, my bet is that some of its competitor and would-be competitors are too. There’s an obvious alternative: A thousand TV stations pumping video to mobile devices should satisfy much of the demand for on-the-go video and relieve broadband networks of what may be an uneconomical chore.
