[superkuh]

Yeah, specifically the sub-6GHz C-band that it is basically ripping out of the hands of traditional radio media companies (ie, npr, etc) that use it for satellite distribution of radio shows. There's been a lot of complaints from radio people about this but the telcos have more money so they'll get it.

[lostmsu]

Which also makes total sense to me: I use radio maybe once a year, mobile data once an hour.

[yborg]

I don't use a wheelchair at all, but I see value in having laws that mandate accessibility. Public policy needs to be set on the basis of societal goals, not individual impulses.

[lostmsu]

I fail to see how that should make a passive low-bandwidth data source prevail over active high- under any circumstances.

[Wowfunhappy]

Radio is used more frequently in poorer and more rural communities.

[lostmsu]

In the US? Do you have data for this? Do those communities even have cell coverage?

[wahern]

> 90 percent of Americans over age 12 listen to AM/FM radio at least once a week — down 2 percent since 2009. (This does not include public media, which Pew covered in a separate fact sheet.)

Source: https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/07/am-fm-radio-holds-strong-f...

[lostmsu]

Once a week vs once an hour gives us clear winner.

https://nypost.com/2017/11/08/americans-check-their-phones-8...

[kube-system]

Frequency of use doesn’t equate to importance.

Example: checking 100 phone notifications about spam email is probably less important to society than a radio alert about a tornado warning.

[wahern]

It didn't say once a week, it said 90% at least once a week. It could be that 89% listen for 4 hours every day. Likewise, 12 minutes for checking the phone was an average. It could be 1% of people staring at their phone every waking hour.

I doubt it's either of those things. We can't begin to make quantitative comparisons with those bare facts. I just thought we could make a very simple qualitative deduction--that terrestrial radio is far more popular than many people believe.