FCC changes to data services could raise costs for rural areas, commissioner argues
Source: McClatchy
APRIL 20, 2017 6:53 PM
BY DONOVAN HARRELL
dharrell@mcclatchydc.com
WASHINGTON -
Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn ripped the FCCs decisions Thursday to soften regulations on business data services and to reinstate a rule that could increase TV station mergers.
Clyburn, a South Carolina native and Democrat, called the party-line vote on business data services an all-out assault on Americas small businesses, schools and local economies.
Business data services connections support rapid data transfers from ATMs and credit-card readers, according to a 2016 President Barack Obama-era proposal to lower prices for these services. The proposal was never approved.
The FCCs vote marks a victory for large corporations such as Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., but could harm small businesses and communities.
Read more: http://www.thestate.com/latest-news/article145854674.html#storylink=cpy
iluvtennis
(19,851 posts)not fooled
(5,801 posts)who went for dump: guess what--this NY thug and fan of oligarchy never gave a rat's ass about you. He sold you a bill of goods during the campaign. You got fleeced by a big-city conman who never really cared at all about rural America. Now you're going to pay the price. And pay. And pay. Unfortunately, so will many others who weren't dimwitted enough to fall for the con.
Condolences on the loss of your little fairy tale.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)They won't even know what hurt them.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)People don't realise this yet - there was a reverse auction that ended this past January. TV stations were asked to give up their licenses, to make way for cellular radio space. https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/public/projects/1000/reports/reverse-winning_bids
And now the FCC want to relax ownership rules, huh?
Given that there will be less licenses to go around in less frequency space for broadcast television... IMO not a bright idea.
I'm not sure where WNBC-TV is going to go yet... but since they sold their license (so that T-Mobile can have space) we'll have to hope that they end up as a .2 on another station.... or no more broadcast WNBC. Same for a lot of other stations around the country. Including local Fox affiliates.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)it's all good! (my point, sarcastically, is you're asking ignorant people to come to realizations of which they are incapable.)
onenote
(42,700 posts)The call sign will be changed to WNBC and the primary signal will be the NBC affiliate. The .2 station will become Telemundo.
And no one will lose either station, NBC gets $214 million and the FCC gets valuable spectrum that can be auctioned for use by wireless service providers, which is increasingly needed.
This is an area in which I work, so I'm not pulling this out of my hat.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)I didn't think WNBC would go away... I guess ComcastNBCU sold off the NBC signal as it was probably more $$$s than the Telemundo signal. I used to follow things more closely during the digital transition, and I do expect most of the sold stations to continue as .2s on other stations. But the way broadcast media is going, I see 8VSB, DVB-T, DAB, HD Radio, all one way broadcasting going obsolete in favor of other packet broadcast technologies and a basic "public internet" service.
dalton99a
(81,455 posts)dembotoz
(16,799 posts)but i guess trump voters love to be milked and boy will they