Kerry/Edwards Pledge to Hasten DTV Transition

[Gregg Lengling]

If you were wondering where Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry stands on the DTV transition, looking at The Kerry-Edwards Five-Point Plan for Rural and Small Town Economies it appears to match that of the Congress and the FCC -- TV broadcasting must transition to digital and free up the analog spectrum. The plan emphasizes the need for bringing high-speed Internet to rural communities and it says one way to do this is to expand the spectrum available for new broadband wireless services that could travel 30 miles. "The Kerry-Edwards plan will complete the transition to digital television, and accelerate the return of valuable spectrum that is currently being used for broadcasting the 'analog' television signal. The plan will ensure that Americans continue to enjoy free, over-the-air television, including subsidies, if necessary, to ensure all Americans can make the transition. Better use of this spectrum will allow us to provide additional spectrum for both licensed and unlicensed services for wireless broadband." It notes that "deploying these new services could be 3-4 times cheaper than existing wireless technologies," an important consideration for rural areas.


Notice that the plan mentions the use of subsidies if necessary. Subsidies for low-cost DTV set-top boxes were mentioned in the MSTV and NAB comments to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry the impact of the DTV transition over-the-air TV viewers described in last week's RF Report.

[Doug Mohr]

What has he been doing the last 19 years in the Senate?? I did a quick search and he has co-sponsored only one bill (S.196 RS) having anything remotely to do with technology and that was to give money to "eligible institutions" to help build their wireless networks.

Kerry has not sponsored, cosponsored, or got involved with either of the recent 108th bills to improve or implement Terrestrial Digital TV (S.1264, S.2644) or any of the 107th (S.604, S.2048, S.2448, S.2454). The only thing he got involved in was voting in favor of house bill H.R.4560 Auction Reform Act of 2002 that postponed the FCC from auctioning off the analog spectrum.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, I can't stand his campaign promises when he has a well documented history in the Senate of saying what the people want to hear to get elected. Don't believe me? Do a search on Senate records of bills and his voting records of health care issues, then read his plans for fixing health care as president.

Doug

[picopir8]

Bush isnt much better....

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1624638,00.asp

Also remember the whole M$ ordeal.  Perhaps we would not have all the security issues if Windows was made open source which was one of the poroposed remedies.  Insteat the case was dropped even though M$ was found to have engaged in anticompetative behaviors.

http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v6/alertv6_26.asp

Personally I think technology wont be much of an issue since its a weak area for them both.

Not looking to get into a debate here, just trying to show the other side of the coin.

[Doug Mohr]

Good Points.

[gparris]

You are just delivering the news and this isn't a political forum;
it is a HDTV forum. But it since it is, any clues as to each side's
knowledge and ways to handle the digital age with the TV side of the technology is always appreciated.
There are so many issues, as we all know there to be, but since the nature of this forum is HDTV, it is great to have any information amongst the din of an election year.
Keep us informed, Gregg!:)

[tazman]

Also remember the whole M$ ordeal. Perhaps we would not have all the security issues if Windows was made open source which was one of the poroposed remedies. Insteat the case was dropped even though M$ was found to have engaged in anticompetative behaviors.

Support LINUX;)