Access to Public Bandwidth

Although the Internet now allows individuals near-complete control over which content to access via their computers, more traditional media such as TV and radio (whether broadcast, cable or satellite) are still limited in the selection they can provide. These media are still widely in use, however, and in many situations are far more convenient and/or inexpensive than Internet access.

Because of the limitations of these media, it has generally been agreed that some measure of public control needed to be excercised over the contents thereof, rather than simply giving the "airspace" (or "bandwidth") to the highest bidder, so as to allow a limited resource to provide the maximum benefit to the public.

However, the various industries which stand to benefit from reduced control continue to attempt to reduce the amount of public control.

Links

 * 2005-08-03: Big cable wants public access denied