This was announced by President Obama yesterday in Michigan. It calls for the freeing up of 500mhz of spectrum. That would be procured by way of auction with the companies now squatting on that spectrum getting a cut of the profits from its sale. The remaining money would pay to build out 4G wireless network access to 98% of the country, fund a major R&D capacity, and have 10 billion left over which would be put toward deficit reduction. Austan Goolsbee, the chair of The President’s Council of Economic Advisers, lays out the plan in a pretty sharp 3 minute video here.
He says while the top five internet companies are all American, the US doesn’t even place in the top five in terms of people using 3G wireless.
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