What a Difference a Year Doesn’t Make

The calendar has Headlines thinking back not just at 2011, but to our beginnings.

Benton launched this service in 1996 as a way to keep people informed about the pressing communications policy debates of the day. We were watching implementation of the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996 and figured other people would like to know about it, too. Not so much on purpose, but aligned with the foundation’s priorities, we covered lots of issues surrounding broadcasting “back in the day.” We certainly had an eye on telecommunications and universal service reform – and that wacky Internet thing – but we found more stories on broadcasting than any other issue. In recent years, especially since editor Kevin Taglang’s return in 2004, we’ve focused more on broadband – extending its reach to all Americans, seeking policies that make it more affordable, and encouraging people to make effective use of it to improve their lives and community. As you probably know, we've tracked implementation of the National Broadband Plan. 2011 has been different, however. 2011, from Headlines’ perceptive, has really been the year of wireless. So we devote this week’s round-up – our last of 2011 – to the state of the wireless industry.

Stacey Higginbotham – one of our favorite writers – wrote a nice piece on wireless that got us thinking about all this. She noted -- What a difference a year doesn’t make: “Between the collapse of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile and the death throes of a proposed wholesale 4G network created by a satellite company and now-broke hedge fund, the wireless industry has generated a lot of stories but no real change in the past year. We still have the same top four providers, and Clearwire is still struggling. The hoped-for entrance of LightSquared as a wholesale LTE-provider hasn’t materialized, and while Dish says it plans to enter the market, that news is balanced out by Cox’s deciding to leave it.”