How Verizon Wireless Puts Politics And Profits Ahead Of Safety
from the take-that,-Nextel... dept
There's been an ongoing battle recently about what to do about the fact that certain Nextel mobile phones cause interference problems for public safety dispatchers. Unfortunately, the battle has become a big political game between Nextel, the FCC and Verizon Wireless. The main issue here needs to be public safety, and every player in the battle has let politics and profits creep into the question. Today, the FCC finally (after many months of very public wavering on the issue) came out with their compromise plan, which is designed mostly to piss off both sides. Basically, Nextel gets the spectrum it (and Verizon Wireless) wants, but has to pay more for it. All in all, it's a reasonable compromise in the interest of public safety -- which means moving Nextel off of its old spectrum as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, in the ongoing game of politics, it's looking like Verizon Wireless may follow through on threats to sue to stop this deal (possibly even suing FCC commissioners personally) which would only result in putting more lives at risk. Verizon Wireless should admit that this is a compromise deal. They don't get the spectrum, but Nextel had to cough up more cash, and in the interest of public safety, it's time to lock up the lawyers and let this one go.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]