I understand it may be an active community, but it's tiny. Why should this valuable spectrum be set aside for this purpose?
Just go on IRC.
In other words, your smartphone isn't going to work, thus IRC isn't going to work. Even in areas hit by simple things such as power outages. Or events that take place over a wide geographic area with little to no cell service (think automobile rallies, marathons, biking events, etc). All these need reliable, inexpensive communications, and people to run them.
Next time you're stuck in an area hit by a natural disaster, and you've made it out alive, there's a significant chance amateur radio played a part in that.
Or, more likely, professional radio.
Even companies have one or more amateur radio stations on site and several licensed and experienced communicators, just in case. I've worked at 3 and I'm familiar with dozens.
Take the Boston Marathon Bombing, of all the communication infrastructure Amateur Radio was one of the few that stayed up[1].
It's really common for hams to provide event support in cases like that and other events where cell communication is limited to none at best(think bike races out in rural areas).
Spend a bit of time poking around the hobby, you might find it's more interesting than first glance.
[1] http://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateurs-provide-communicatio...
As someone who works in the commercial radio industry, I understand where you're coming from - the amateur radio radio bands are relatively silent (but definitely not unused) compared the the commercial/business bands, which is frustrating. There are applications which are difficult or impossible to do for customers that would be doable if amateur spectrum was reallocated for commercial uses.
That being said, having "amateurs" (who often know as much or more about radio than people who do it for a living) be able to experiment and learn radio is a net benefit to society.
Oh? Isn't this comparable to "let's start allocating class E to help IPv4 live longer"? IOW: It's just a piss in the ocean, and wouldn't help meaningfully. (and also would raise a whole bunch of problems like $millions to $billions in deployed existing equipment, and other problems mentioned elsewhere)
I'm sure it'd be great for someone to get 2m band, or 70cm band. But you (the commercial operator) wouldn't get it, would you? It'd be sold to someone and it'd be gone from amateurs and from you.
Near 70cm there's the commercial FM band that you could argue has way more than 2MHz of just slack between stations.
Or am I missing something?
Two issues arise from this limitation - you may not be able to get as many frequencies as you want (perhaps you want 10 channels to have overlayed networks and/or repeaters). You also may not be able to get a 25kHz channel, which used to be the default assignment, and now is special request/justification only due to band crowding. Smaller channels = less bandwidth = less potential applications. In extremely crowded areas, there may be no available frequencies at all (or they may be limited to a few watts, reducing range and potential applications).
Amateurs currency have access to 420-450 MHz, an even larger band. If any of that were to be re-assigned, in theory it would be easier to get more channels or larger channels (there's no technical reason you could operate at 50kHz or 100kHz in that band, for example). Opening up even 2 MHz of spectrum could mean tens of thousands of additional stations could get on the air or new or existing licensees could get larger, faster channels.
A common misconception is that all commercial frequencies are auctioned off for geographically exclusive operation - this isn't true in this band and some others. A 10 year license is available to any American citizen, business, or municipal organization for about ~$500.
edit: I am aware this article is about 144-148 MHz, not 400 MHz. 150-174 MHz is more or less adjacent to the 2m band, and is handled by the FCC in more or less the same way as the 450-470 MHz band.
I worry about slippery slope it would create. AFAIU, opening up those few MHz out of amateur band would let tens of thousands of commercial station to pop up... and the band would get crowded again, leading to pleads for the amateurs to release couple more MHz, until eventually amateurs are no more in this part of the spectrum.
Tiny community? 630,000 licensed hams in the USA ... about 2.5 hams for every thousand adults. Very roughly, about the same number of hams as there are police officers in America.
These hams often provide communications to such events as marathons (where people are spread out across a city), regional bike races (which sometimes happen where there's no cell phone service), as well as back-up communications during such troubles as forest fires.
Those hams who check into 2-meter emergency response networks are the people who your community will depend when the phone system croaks.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/97.1
47 CFR § 97.1
(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.
Not only do the operators themselves provide value in that they have alternative means for communicating in an emergency but most of them possess skills that come in handy during an emergency or in remote areas.
For example, they understand radio waves, the radio spectrum, and how waves travel through space. I remember my father telling me as a child how some signals travel outwards from the source in all directions, some waves travel in a straight line, and some will follow the curvature of the Earth. I remember him telling me that on the ground during 9-11 there were so many Nextel walkie-talkie's at ground zero (all of them with their signal power maxxed-out) and as a result of all the interference nobody could get a meaningful signal out.
Lots of HAM operators also understand circuitry, logic, programming, properties of electromagnetic fields, complex wiring, complex electro-mechanical assemblies, heavy mechanical assemblies like towers/antennas. They're also incredibly passionate, and mostly understand and respect the importance of strict regulatory compliance.
In short, when shit hits the fan and the EMP's start taking everything out we're gonna need someone to fire up some good ol' fashioned logistics/networking in a jiffy... And they HAM crowd is going to be the only one capable, willing, and eager to do that.
I suggest reading up on how it’s used before making assumptions.
The comparison to IRC would be more apropos for the HF bands.
http://www.arrl.org/news/us-amateur-radio-population-grows-s...