On Feb 17, 2009, television signals will no longer be broadcast
through the airwaves. A rabbit-ear antenna will not bring
television to a set, and to say 'on the air' will be obsolete.
So why do we care about this? While this will not affect the
majority of households that are already subscribing to cable
television, this will usher in a substantial wave of
technological innovation. The freed up band of the
electromagnetic spectrum has certain scientific properties that
can be exploited to transmit new generations of wireless
broadband. Imagine getting a 100 Mbps signal on your cell phone,
fast enough to download streaming high-definition video. Your
cellphone service would include this broadband, and you could
even link the phone as an adapter to your home network, and
receive this broadband into your network. This would allow you
to consolidate your broadband and cellphone service into one
subscription, saving money. More importantly, the innovations
that arise through this will induce leapfrogging to broad