See Save RTHK Photo Album of 2008-01-27 street forum
Here is the Save RTHK Facebook group description,
挺 公 共 廣 播 、 撐 香 港 電 台 、
爭 言 論 自 由 、 反 另 立 假 貨 ！We care about speech freedom in Hong Kong.
We support RTHK.
We demand the delinking of RTHK from the government structure and the making of RTHK a genuine public broadcaster.
We oppose the setting up of a government propaganda media organization.
The Save RTHK Facebook group has collected various news articles and video clips, quite nice.
First of all, Wired has provided an excellent primer on the 700MHz auction, check out “FAQ: Inside the High-Stakes 700-MHz Spectrum Auction“. And if you like further info, you can also check out the FCC info on “Auction Designs” and “How is an Auction Conducted?“
Now, I think we can all thank the Nobel Economist Ronald Coase for all the current fun and excitement for the spectrum auction.
In Thomas W. Hazlett’s (George Mason University) January 2001 paper, “The Wireless Craze, The Unlimited Bandwidth Myth, The Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline to Ronald Coase’s “Big Joke”: An Essay on Airwave Allocation Policy“, he wrote,
In 1959 the Federal Communications Commission invited economist Ronald Coase to testify about his proposal for market allocation of radio spectrum rights. The FCC’s first question: “Is this all a big joke?“
Note: Thomas W. Hazlett (recieved his Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA (1984) and served as Chief Economist of the FCC (1991-91)).
Almost fifty years after Coase testified in front of the FCC and with the billions of dollars governments from around the world “made” from auctioning frequency spectrum, I think no one will ask “Is this all a big joke?” like the FCC did then. (big smile)
Now, even I haven’t read the above 210-page economics research paper in full (ok, I am curious but not “210-page” curious (smile)), I suspect it will give interested readers some basic understanding of US airway allocation policy.
Here are a few news article reporting on the 700MHz Auction,
P.S. This is no easy topic but I am interested in auction strategies. And it will be fun to read your insights (please share) or some of the winners’ strategies afterwards.
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Jan 29, 2008 Update: BusinessWeek - "FCC's Auction: Not Going According to Plan?"
I read two great pieces by my friend Daisann. She wrote in “The Electric Platform” (an excerpt, emphasis mine),
“Yesterday an extraordinary thing happened in Hong Kong. A young magistrate in the Eastern District Court, Douglas Yau Tak Hong, delivered a knockout judgement in favor of the upstart pirate radio station, Citizen’s Radio of Hong Kong. Judge Yau, in dismissing the case against activists Tsang Kin-sheng (”The Bull”), Leung Kwok-hung and several others, ruled that the current system of approving/rejecting applications for a broadcast license in Hong Kong is unconstitutional according to the Basic Law.“
And then she talks about “heaven platform” (天台, that’s rooftop), good friends, and good food in a constantly changing Hong Kong.
Daisann, thanks for being my eyes and ears in all things Hong Kong (especially politics and Long Hair News) as I somehow missed this news even I tried to read all the headlines on Apple Daily (after all, I had paid for a subscription). You know I aspire to write like you and I know I still have a long way to go. But then the journey is what makes the writing fun, right? (big smile)
P.S. As an aside, Prof. Lessig has an insightful blog entry on “Deregulating Spectrum” that provides a good argument on what our current (and future) technologies are capable of delivering with properly defined spectrum usage spectrum policy can allow wide spread use of the spectrum. Great Google video by Prof. Lessig explaining the U.S. situations.
