What the FCC would probably do is slap a bureaucratic technical concept into law, and there it would stay, immune to innovation. Look up sometime what took so long for cell phones to get going.

If you leave things mostly alone, the companies figure out how to do this themselves. This isn't a matter of Evil Capitalists screwing the consumers, it's about a huge demand for HD overwhelming the bandwidth on a specific transmission method. The article puts it quite simply: You can have a dozen regular channels, two good HD channels, or three not-so-good HD channels in the same cable pipeline.

To keep it at top quality, either they have to cut back one HD channel, or four regular ones. FIOS, the one they compared favorably against Comcast, has apparently already eliminated analog channels. Note that the person who did the experiment hooked up Comcast so he could see something he couldn't get on FIOS. Also, FIOS runs over fiber optics (the name is short for "fiber optics service).

Neither cables or fibers are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The cable companies have competition, and don't want to be famous for a cheesy product any more than you want to watch one. The article describes some innovations that will help distribute the bandwidth until fiber is available in more areas. Technological innovation is why I can now get 3500 kbps over the exact same home phone line that once delivered 14.7.

It'll get there. Don't screw it up.