Everyone else is talking about the debate, but I’m going to touch on cybersecurity tonight. There was a great overview of what the issues and stakes really are on Monday’s Coffee and Markets. Francis Cianfrocca doesn’t post as much as he used to at RedState – he, not government, is building his business – but he sure knows what he’s talking about when it comes to government, military, and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. And he and I are in agreement that the Obama plan is wrong.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is also saying that a new Senate report on the topic also makes the case. “For months now I’ve been saying that it would be a mistake for the Administration to give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) control over our nation’s cybersecurity. This report affirms my position, and I urge the Administration to take the report into account and not issue an Executive Order that significantly expands DHS’s role in cybersecurity.”
In short, the President is wrong and divisive with his go-it-alone, cowboy strategy, instead of seeking bipartisan, government-and-industry consensus on an important matter of national security.
And one more story tonight: T-Mobile and MetroPCS have agreed to sell off MetroPCS to T-Mobile USA, giving the latter some spectrum. Note, this really is about spectrum: T-Mobile is already talking about an accelerated program of turning off MetroPCS’s CDMA network, forcing all customers over to T-Mobile’s GSM network, as early as 2014.
Basically MetroPCS is to T-Mobile, as T-Mobile was to AT&T. It’s all about the spectrum. Everyone needs more spectrum to try to compete with Verizon in the LTE space, while still keeping 2G and 3G going. Sure, voice over LTE is doable, but even with that you can’t turn off the 2G voice without obsoleting all the handsets on that network. T-Mobile isn’t doing that with its own customers, just the MetroPCS customers.