Unfortunately human nature has a way of showing up very quickly in any political situation. Barack Obama is no exception. According to Power Line Blog, the delay in converting our television sets from analog to digital may have more to do with a telecommunications industry executive that contributed to the Obama campaign than any practical considerations.
R. Gerard Salemme, an executive vice president at a company called Clearwire, advised Obama's telecom transition team and was a substantial contributor to the Obama campaign. Timothy Carney, a columnist for the Washington Examiner, contends that delaying the transition from analog to digital will assist Sprint and Clearwire while injuring Verizon, one of Sprint's major competitors.
According to the article:
"As Carney explains it, the switch from analog to digital will free up a huge swath of frequencies, which the FCC has auctioned off to other telecommunications firms, including Verizon, who will use this spectrum for its wireless broadband networks, providing Internet for Blackberries and similar devices. But Sprint and Clearwire already own specturm which they have used to launch their their fourth-generation wireless broadband network, known as 4G network. Verizon cannot do so yet because it lacks the necessary spectrum. Thus, says Carney, "the longer broadcasters use analog signals, the longer Verizon has to wait to get the spectrum it needs for its 4G network--which gives Sprint a longer honeymoon as the only network offering 4G speeds.""
You can find the original article at deexaminer.com.
Leave a comment