This week Charter Communications, the fourth largest cable operator in the U.S., notified customers that a “broadcast TV surcharge” was being added to their bills (in St. Louis, one of the largest cities they operate in, the charge is 94 cents).
Last week, President Obama put out a memorandum on spectrum reclamation, placing further momentum behind the push to free up more spectrum for mobile high-speed Internet use. Sound familiar?
If you are a Comcast customer, you probably recently received your annual (or bi-annual) rate increase notice. If so, you'll notice that Comcast increased the price of broadband on their low and mid-tier packages.
It's like clockwork. At least once a month, a major wireless operator trots out an executive to say the current model for mobile data usage is unsustainable. The sob story goes something like this:
As we approach the release of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan next week, the agency has mounted a major PR offensive, trickling out nuggets of information, hoping each one generates a favorable story.
