Posted by: Joan Marsh on February 1, 2011 at 5:37 pm
In a town that rarely sees agreement, there is now broad consensus regarding U.S. wireless broadband demand trends and the need to ensure that America keeps pace with the global wireless revolution. And almost everyone agrees that the key component to meeting exploding consumer demand for wireless data services is more spectrum. Almost everyone, that is, except NAB. In an astonishing display of denial and false accusation, NAB circulated a letter this week accusing wireless carriers of being spectrum hoarders.
Really?
The wireless industry collectively shares about 425 MHz of mobile wireless spectrum used to serve over 292 million customers, and that number is growing. The broadcast industry, by contrast, currently uses roughly half that to serve only 10 million over-the-air households, and that number is shrinking. The wireless industry is currently racing to build the 4th generation of wireless networks (the third voluntary digital transition), investing billions of dollars and leading the world in wireless innovation and LTE deployment. The broadcasters, by contrast, continue to rely on the same inefficient big stick distribution model that went digital via Congressional mandate in 2009, but otherwise hasn’t changed that much since color television was first introduced in 1953.
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Posted by: Bob Quinn on January 28, 2011 at 6:10 pm
It’s National Data Privacy Day and what better way to celebrate than to look at the progress on privacy made yesterday by our friends at GSMA – the association representing the worldwide mobile communications industry. We have been pleased to work with the GSMA folks and other industry members to develop a set of universal Privacy Principles as part of GSMA’s Mobile Privacy Initiative.
These principles are not designed to supplant existing law, but rather to cultivate the orderly evolution of privacy frameworks across the vast array of governing bodies that have a legitimate interest in protecting the privacy of users around the globe. The principles – which you can read in their entirety here – embody much of what we at AT&T have long believed in and practiced about privacy by design.
They stress the importance of openness, transparency and notice; define appropriate uses of personal information; and emphasize user control and choice. They prescribe respect for user rights, security of personal information, and education of users, especially children. We’re pleased to be a part of this Mobile Privacy Initiative and we support its goal of serving as the start of a process that will seek to shape the way privacy is advanced, managed and protected across the emerging mobile eco-system.
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