The FCC is being urged to include rules that would ease the way for open, flexible cell-phone networks when it sets the rules for an upcoming auction of the wireless spectrum.

NPR: Groups Urge FCC to Open Wireless Networks

After all, the concept - creating flexible electronics and assembling them on equally flexible plastic - has been touted since the 1960s, when the first flexible solar cell arrays appeared.

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Dr Claus has already used this process to make a flexible kind of photovoltaic cell, made from alternating polymer and ceramic layers, that can be sewn on the outside of a tent.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

But thanks to mismanagement by the FCC, only a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum is available for the flexible, exclusive licenses needed to provide cell phone service.

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Flexible displays have been hyped as the future of cell phones and mobile technology for the past several years.

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Under a defence contract, Dr Claus's laboratory is testing a photovoltaic cell constructed from films of polymer and ceramic which feels as flexible and hardy as cloth.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR