Reducing interference is a fine theory, but who decides that one party's traffic is legitimate, and the other party's traffic is interference?
In most sane countries, there is a licensing authority to whom you pay licensing fees in exchange for exclusive use of spectrum, and the person who owns that license is the lawful spectrum user. And then you have deregulated bands that anyone can use without any license and it is on these bands that WiFi operates.
I think the outrage that people have about what is going on here is essentially Ofcom (UK's version of the FCC) is, for this event, regulating an "unlicensed" band that is supposed to be available for everyone's use.
And so not only are Ofcom granting a part of the spectrum to the IOC for free, they are also effectively withdrawing a "license" from the general public. And the people who make hardware and software are unwillingly subsidizing the IOC by creating and marketing and mass-producing cheap devices that utilize radio frequencies that they reasonably expected consumers to be able to control, not reserved for the use of a private entity.
If the IOC wants interference-free spectrum, it's easy enough to get. The outrage here is that they are exercising control over spectrum that is explicitly not to be controlled.
I can't tell whether your argument is that it should be that way or it is that way, but you're wrong on both counts:
Straight from the FCC:
> Today’s declaratory ruling reaffirms the Commission’s dedication to promoting the widespread deployment of unlicensed Wi-Fi devices. It clarifies that American consumers and businesses are free to install Wi-Fi antennas under our OTARD rules – meaning without seeking approval from their landlords – just as they are free to install antennas for video programming and other fixed wireless applications. - FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps [1]
As to whether it should be this way, consider a world in which individual landowners could actively jam police communications, or if every sliver of the spectrum chart [2] needed to negotiate with all the landowners in the United States. No radio communication would be possible. It is about as workable as letting landowners shoot down planes flying through "their" airspace.
In most sane countries, there is a licensing authority to whom you pay licensing fees in exchange for exclusive use of spectrum, and the person who owns that license is the lawful spectrum user. And then you have deregulated bands that anyone can use without any license and it is on these bands that WiFi operates.
I think the outrage that people have about what is going on here is essentially Ofcom (UK's version of the FCC) is, for this event, regulating an "unlicensed" band that is supposed to be available for everyone's use.
And so not only are Ofcom granting a part of the spectrum to the IOC for free, they are also effectively withdrawing a "license" from the general public. And the people who make hardware and software are unwillingly subsidizing the IOC by creating and marketing and mass-producing cheap devices that utilize radio frequencies that they reasonably expected consumers to be able to control, not reserved for the use of a private entity.
If the IOC wants interference-free spectrum, it's easy enough to get. The outrage here is that they are exercising control over spectrum that is explicitly not to be controlled.