Business travelers want high-tech hotels
Business travelers don’t just want a place to lay their heads—they want all the conveniences of home, according to a survey from Hyatt Place. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they want a hotel that allows for multitasking on the road, with 78 percent saying they feel the need to be as productive when traveling as they are in the office. More than 70 percent of business travelers said they would only consider hotels with guestrooms offering up-to-date technology, while a third of respondents said they would drive 10 to 30-plus miles out of their way to ensure they stay in a hotel with free high-speed wireless Internet access in guestrooms and public areas.
The agency hopes to get roughly 120 megahertz of that spectrum from broadcasters of free, over-the-air TV. It would allow broadcasters to unload frequencies they don't need and share in the proceeds raised by auctioning those airwaves to wireless companies.
That proposal has run into resistance from the National Association of Broadcasters. TV broadcasters gave up more than 100 megahertz of spectrum when they shut off analog signals last year and began broadcasting only in digital. Many say they plan to use their remaining frequencies to transmit high-definition signals, to "multicast" multiple channels and to deliver mobile TV to phones, laptops and cars.
The FCC plan also lays out a framework for overhauling the federal Universal Service Fund to pay for expanding broadband instead of basic phone service. The $8-billion-a-year program, financed by a surcharge that businesses and consumers pay on long-distance bills, was established to subsidize telephone service in sparsely populated places. The Los Angeles Times contributed
