Easier said than done.

The Federal Communications Commission, like any governmental agency, is a bureaucracy with complex regulations and application processes.  The majority of the FCC's regulations are included in Title 47 of Code of Federal Regulations.  When the FCC refers to a Section code, they are usually refering to Title 47.  The FCC is in charge of managing frequencies designated by the Office of Engineering and Technology, which includes bands from 9 kHz to 275 GHz, called the FCC Table of Frequency Allocations (further subdivided into the International and US Tables—seen codified in the Federal Code of Regulation, paying particular attention to Sections 2.105 and 2.106).  As you can see, there is a large amount of spectrum to be governed including naval and aeronautical communications, amateur radio band, mobile radio, microwave links, satellite communications, wireless internet, etc.  A good visual perspective of this is can be best summarized below (courtesy of Discover Magazine--click here for full depiction).

The FCC has a big job.  Our lives are impacted by regulation made that dole out allocations for use of everything from emergency channels to--most currently evolving--personal digital communications devices.  Behind the scenes is a whole lobbying force of communications companies attempting to gain as much access as possible to wireless channels in order to control the flow of information.  In our modern age, the free flow of information is a defining concept in democracy.  Although the typical person may not think of this while surfing the internet, using a smart device, or turning on the radio, but the concept has huge implications.  What if only a few communications companies control the wireless spectrum?  We end up with alliances to push information to the surface that only benefits the further control of the people in charge.  We can see mutiple examples of this nowadays, like how polarized liberal and conservative political opinions often dictate perceived truths in media instead of science, natural law, and ethics.

The public should be informed of issues concerning net neutrality, FCC frequency auctions, and content control.  Although digital (IP) technology is the future, broadcast television, cable, satellite, and radio still hold dominant positions because of their ubiquitous nature.  Terrestrial broadcasting, such as radio, is most useful in communicating to large local audiences with ease.  Additionally, the communication is free of a middle man, such as an internet provider.  If martial law is imposed, it would be a lot easier for the powers that be to switch off your internet and cell phone than shut down the local low power community radio station.  Although we are starting to sound paranoid, we are trying to communicate that the public has a free speech right to access the airwaves and it is a disservice to our democracy when too few corporations control access to them.  Thus we support laws to be crafted to allow systematic access to the airwaves by the public.

Please refer back to this page mid-March 2010 when we finish compiling the information on this new section.