roundtable: Re: universal service and non profit amendments....

roundtable: Re: universal service and non profit amendments....

Re: universal service and non profit amendments....

David Dill (dill@hohum.stanford.edu)
Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:28:40 PST 

Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:28:40 PST
From: dill@hohum.stanford.edu (David Dill)
Message-Id: <9403241928.AA25446@hohum.Stanford.EDU>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: universal service and non profit amendments....


Be patient with me, as I am an outsider on this list and not
tracking the details of the legislation.

I am puzzled by this discussion, because it seems to be founded
on assumptions that I hope are not true: that the NII will be
a collection of cable-TV-like channels that need to be rationed.

I would prefer a high-bandwidth telephone model, where I pay a
small flat rate for the hookup and for calls.  If I want to
watch a movie, I should be able to dial up (with a nice menu-based
interface) one of several vendors who can charge whatever they
choose for whatever I want to watch -- and if I don't like it,
I can use someone else.

If I want to hear about the American Communist Party's viewpoint,
I can dial them up and watch their documentaries or whatever.  If
they want to encourage people to watch, they could lower the price
for doing so to $0 (maybe they could pay me?)

If an organization is willing to make their information freely 
available, I could instead subscribe to free or cheap "clipping
services", which provide various collections of documentaries,
editorials, etc. according to some stated or unstated editorial
viewpoint.  Perhaps I can even run one of my own, where I collect
points to things I found particularly interesting so others can
easily access them.

Perhaps the US Government could subsidize some of these services.
But it seems to me that if high-bandwidth common-carrier services
can be provided at reasonable prices, the issue of how to ration
the broadcast spectrum (over the air or over cables) becomes moot.

What am I missing?

     David Dill
     <dill@hohum.stanford.edu>

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