A big reason our wireless infrastructure sucks (and won't improve a whole lot) is that we devote a huge amount of the best spectrum space to broadcast radio and television. Signals sent on TV or radio-sized frequency travel farther and are less vulnerable to interference than cell phone signals or LTE just about anything else except for some channels reserved for military communication. We have the ability to send a whole lot of data over the air more robustly than we can right now, but it's being used to support obsolete technology.
The FCC auctioned off or gave away a lot of prime spectrum to radio and TV providers back when it wasn't nearly as precious as it is today, and they adopted old, inefficient formats that need an enormous range of frequencies to transmit very little data. Do you know anyone who has used broadcast television over the past ten years? I don't, and I don't think I know very many people who have either. Yet we still use a whole lot of really good VHF space for wasteful analog communication. Meanwhile, the channels used for some of the most important things, like Wi-Fi, need to use some of the crappiest spectrum around, because everything else has been allocated already.
Things are improving, albeit slowly. The switch from analog to digital broadcast TV is opening up a whole lot of space, much of which is being used for WIMAX. But radio uses up even more space than TV did, and there are no plans on the horizon to change it at all.
actually, i know several people who still use both broadcast TV and radio.
a major issue that many people seem to miss is that all communication necessarily self-selects for people who can receive it. today, in what many people consider to be the "internet-age", those of us who use the internet tend to forget about those who do not (or simply miss them, if we do remember). and the people who don't tend to be those who are either disabled (because it is difficult for them to make use of the tech), or those who can't afford it.
while i'll definitely agree that we need to take another look at how we're allocating the spectrum, let's not forget as we do so that there are people who depend heavily on tech that is only obsolete for us personally, not for the world as a whole.
I have no problem with broadcast TV, although ubiquitous fast internet service could make that unnecessary. What I have a problem with is the use of really good spectrum space for analog signals inefficiently. TV now is a lot better than it used to be, but radio still uses up a huge band of frequencies, and it could use a lot less if we switched to digital.
There's a whole community on Reddit call Cord Cutters that use Internet steams and Broadcast TV to replace cable Television:
http://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/
I dumped cable 2 years ago due to the high cost, and relish my broadcast television.
Tradeable broadcasts permits would be an improvement, allowing companies with valuable new technologies to purchase spectrum rights from companies whose products had become valued less in the marketplace. Imagine what the country would look like if you had to apply to a regulator every time you wanted to buy or sell a piece of land.
The FCC auctioned off or gave away a lot of prime spectrum to radio and TV providers back when it wasn't nearly as precious as it is today, and they adopted old, inefficient formats that need an enormous range of frequencies to transmit very little data. Do you know anyone who has used broadcast television over the past ten years? I don't, and I don't think I know very many people who have either. Yet we still use a whole lot of really good VHF space for wasteful analog communication. Meanwhile, the channels used for some of the most important things, like Wi-Fi, need to use some of the crappiest spectrum around, because everything else has been allocated already.
Things are improving, albeit slowly. The switch from analog to digital broadcast TV is opening up a whole lot of space, much of which is being used for WIMAX. But radio uses up even more space than TV did, and there are no plans on the horizon to change it at all.