Re: [WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy

2006-05-29 Thread John Scrivner

Replies inline:

Patrick Leary wrote:


I favor substantial use rules and also agree in rejecting squatters rights.
A method of issuing licenses I like is the following:

1. licenses are broken up into regional and local.
 

Why not license by base station? Then a provider cannot ignore 
under-served areas. They must serve the area completely or someone else 
makes a business case and serves the area.  Under the plan I proposed 
the area runs unlicensed if substantial use is not able to be reached. 
No need for license costs or property protection if you cannot make a 
business case to build out to begin with or if a service area has too 
few people to require license protection. Why build layers of 
administrative overhead for the whole country when some areas run fine 
on unlicensed. Let the market dictate where the licenses are needed and 
where they are not. Why should someone be pronounced ruler of the 
frequency in a place they do not serve? Set licensing by base station 
and see how many people make the jump from unlicensed to licensed 
delivery of broadband in this country. You will see the whole country 
served effectively with wireless broadband very quickly under my plan. 
Your plan is still requiring more time and money before anything gets 
built. I am surprised Alvarion is not not jumping on my plan. My plan 
could sell much more gear than your plan for sure. I am sure of it.



2. the government sets the price in advance
 

We already own these frequencies. Why pay a big chunk to the government 
for something we already own? This is simply a way to cause services to 
cost more and limit speed of growth. It cracks me up that we have big 
companies crying that they cannot afford to build broadband into rural 
areas without USF but they think it is fine to pay billions for 
frequencies to do the job. I smell a big rat in that game.


It is easy to limit the number of providers who can deliver broadband 
wirelessly if it costs billions to own all the frequencies in advance 
and the precious few megasuck.nets in turn get billions in subsidies 
through USF to build out their network after the fact.  Talk about  
hand-outs. Who is getting the hand-outs from your plan?


Your proposal basically makes the process inaccessible to many 
entrepreneurs and adds overhead cost and slows deployment. I would agree 
that a monthly or yearly fee should be paid to own and maintain a 
license. Of course under my plan you could just run unlicensed if you do 
not feel the need to pay for a license with the rights of property 
protections which can be afforded by government involvement in the 
process. Basically if you want the government to help protect your 
property interest through a license then you should expect to pay the 
government to help protect you. If you do not need protection then you 
can still use the band if nobody else has built it up and licensed it in 
your location



3. competing parties submit proposals
 

How many million proposals would be required to have enough granularity 
for this to work for anyone but megasuck.net to get a license? Nobody 
but a megasuck.net conglomerate would be able to compete. This is just 
another way to do the same crap that has led us to a world of spectrum 
haves and have nots. Patrick, please try to believe for once that anyone 
who runs a broadband company does not need to have $25 million in the 
bank or they should not be in the game. Entrepreneurs need a chance in 
this game. They do not need to have ALL the game by any means but they 
should have a shot at the game. Under your proposal there is no chance 
for a startup to get a license without millions of dollars backing him. 
This does not foster innovation and stimulate new opportunities for anyone.



4. the proposals are evaluated on their benefit to the public
 

And who does this? Who gets to say my proposal is better than yours? Why 
not let those who must drink the punch have a say in who is serving it? 
My proposal does this by allowing a group being served to request the 
loss of a license for a holder who is charging too much or delivering 
bad service. They get a say. License holders would not get a license at 
all if the people in the area served decided not to buy from them. Your 
plan is more of the same government as usual program where people have 
no real say in their future and local interests do not get a chance to 
build communications for their area. My plan allows local interests to 
have a level field without taking any opportunity away from anyone 
including the big guys. Your plan excludes smaller companies who are not 
well funded from the start. Do not forget that Apple started in a garage.



5. parties are also evaluated on their ability to implement
 

My plan does this already. In my plan you have to build the network 
first, then you get your license if people buy it and like it.  If you 
cannot get market share under unlicensed then applying for a license is 
not going 

Re: [WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy was:3650 equipment

2006-05-29 Thread Tom DeReggi

4. the proposals are evaluated on their benefit to the public


These are the two flawed areas.  Who is qualified to make the decission? The 
proposals that best show they will benefit the public, will most likely be 
the same ones that are selling a vapor solution that will never work.  The 
realistic providers that are honest about what the technology or for that 
matter the business model will deliver are the ones that will lose.  The 
bigger promisers not deliverers will win.



5. parties are also evaluated on their ability to implement


Once again, support for large single monopoly, apposed to support of 
competition of the many small players.
The ones that are best financially capable to implement are not the ones 
that are best morally to deliver the targeted result.


Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL  Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband


- Original Message - 
From: Patrick Leary [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To: 'WISPA General List' wireless@wispa.org
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 11:45 AM
Subject: RE: [WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy was:3650 equipment



I favor substantial use rules and also agree in rejecting squatters rights.
A method of issuing licenses I like is the following:

1. licenses are broken up into regional and local.
2. the government sets the price in advance
3. competing parties submit proposals
4. the proposals are evaluated on their benefit to the public
5. parties are also evaluated on their ability to implement
6. a proposal is picked, a license awarded, a timeframe set
7. parties failing in the timeframe requirement lose their license

That is a good model in some cases. I also think that auctions have their
place, but have to be carefully managed and evidence of collusion needs to
be punished massively. I also think unlicensed has its place, and I am all
for a registration requirement (not a license, but a registration of 
active

base stations for ALL commercial UL operators), which is something I
conceived of and proposed to the Spectrum Policy Task Force back in 2002.

With all do respect John, I do not buy the power to the people argument.
And I don't buy that all WISPs are pure and good and have the public
interest at heart. Most WISPs deploy to fill their capacity, they do not
deploy to address equity issues or to make sure that anyone in the cell 
that

wants access gets it. Most WISPs are just as much capitalists pigs as the
big guys, only on a smaller scale. And that is fine, but let's not pretend
there is some sort of special nobility just by virtue of being a WISP. 
I've

seen my share of folks that I consider noble, but it does not make their
business noble. And I've seen more than my share of opportunist scumbags
praying on customers, abusing rules, etc.

Nothing prevents anyone from creating a business plan that can attract
capital and investment and the government is under no obligation to offer
commercial rights to those that cannot. Many WISPs started very humbly and
succeeded brick by brick and now have multi-million dollar businesses.

If a BWA-dedicated UL is finally created, you should realize that anyone 
can

use it, even those companies you revile. There are no rights for use by
WISPs only.

Patrick Leary
AVP Marketing
Alvarion, Inc.
o: 650.314.2628
c: 760.580.0080
Vonage: 650.641.1243

-Original Message-
From: John Scrivner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 7:48 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy was:3650 equipment

It would be amazing if one time our government could get spectrum policy
right. Up until now they have not got it right even once regarding
access to spectrum in my opinion. Unlicensed is closer to right than
licensed because it at least allows other entrants into the space other
than just the ultra-rich. It gives back some of the power to the people.
Unlicensed is wrong because it has no possibility of protections at all
for those who use this to build their business. That completely stinks..
License auctions create a land grab mentality with little to no
thought given to how people will be served in the long run. We have seen
this fail time and time again.

The right way is for us to finally have a band dedicated to broadband
use with some right to run a little power...please!... for God's
sake!...give us some power one time! It would start as unlicensed with
registration required. As the band could be proven to be substantially
used (serving real customers with actual services) by an operator then
licenses would be issued. A license would be for only one base station
though. If an operator shows he has customers served on a base station
then he can apply for a license. No more blanket region licenses. The
substantial use provision means nobody gets squatters rights. You either
prove you are using the band to serve actual customers on a base station
or you run unlicensed until you can prove substantial use.

Then the incentive is for operators to build out

[WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy was:3650 equipment

2006-05-27 Thread John Scrivner
It would be amazing if one time our government could get spectrum policy 
right. Up until now they have not got it right even once regarding 
access to spectrum in my opinion. Unlicensed is closer to right than 
licensed because it at least allows other entrants into the space other 
than just the ultra-rich. It gives back some of the power to the people. 
Unlicensed is wrong because it has no possibility of protections at all 
for those who use this to build their business. That completely stinks.. 
License auctions create a land grab mentality with little to no 
thought given to how people will be served in the long run. We have seen 
this fail time and time again.


The right way is for us to finally have a band dedicated to broadband 
use with some right to run a little power...please!... for God's 
sake!...give us some power one time! It would start as unlicensed with 
registration required. As the band could be proven to be substantially 
used (serving real customers with actual services) by an operator then 
licenses would be issued. A license would be for only one base station 
though. If an operator shows he has customers served on a base station 
then he can apply for a license. No more blanket region licenses. The 
substantial use provision means nobody gets squatters rights. You either 
prove you are using the band to serve actual customers on a base station 
or you run unlicensed until you can prove substantial use.


Then the incentive is for operators to build out a network and serve 
customers as quickly as possible to attain licenses as opposed to buying 
large regions and squatting on licenses leaving them unused for years or 
even decades as we see now. If they price it too high then people do not 
buy service from the operator and the operator cannot get the protection 
of a license. Note the operator has the right to serve immediately as an 
unlicensed operator and has an incentive to serve customers as quickly 
as possible to gain license protections. 

I think that the licenses should be contingent upon public good for 
perpetuity. If public good is lost in the future (by an operator who 
over-prices or sells to a mega-corp who does not care) then the license 
could become open again if people request this.  Charge too much, lose 
your license. Sell to megasuck.net, lose your license. Provide crap 
service, lose your license. Note that this does not mean you cannot 
operate there if you lose your license. It just means you lose your 
exclusive license and right to impose interference protection. It means 
competition can move in on you and work toward gaining the license if 
you do not do your job. This puts the power right where it should be, in 
the hands of the people.


In a 50 MHz band (like 3650) with 10 MHz channels imposed you could 
conceivably have up to 5 licenses available for 5 base station in any 
one location. If you are an operator who is building good business 
relationships you might get all 5 licenses in an area. Maybe not. Maybe 
you get 2 or 3 and someone else gets some. The point is that you have 
SOME rights if you do a good job and do not screw the customer.


It is time to stop the lack of rights for those building networks on 
unlicensed bands and stop the squatting on licenses for those with the 
fattest wallets. It is time for the people to be in control of their 
spectrum assets. The public good provisions do that. Why should one 
federal agency get to tell all the people what they can and cannot do 
with one of our country's most valuable assets?


I have a name for this new way of looking at spectrum policy.. I call 
this Middle Class Spectrum Policy and I would really like to see us 
all start moving toward this as a group strategy in the future. If we 
attain some control of spectrum under these terms I am reasonably 
certain all future spectrum policy would reflect at least the spirit of 
the policy as outlined above. Do we want to continue to allow policy to 
happen around us or do we want to start building policy that is forward 
thinking enough to empower us all?

John Scrivner

PS. If you are reading this and you have not paid your WISPA dues then 
go to http://signup.wispa.org/ right now and stop letting others pay to 
take care of you in D.C. We need your support!




Matt Liotta wrote:


Splitting up the band will just make it useless and interference free.

-Matt

Patrick Leary wrote:

You make the mistake of assuming that I am talking about an 
unlicensed 3.65
product Charles. We would not likely build a UL version of all that. 
I am in
complete agreement with you on 3.650 in terms of the end reality and 
utility

of the band in a licensed versus unlicensed allocation. That is why I
support essentially splitting the band.

Patrick Leary
AVP Marketing
Alvarion, Inc.
o: 650.314.2628
c: 760.580.0080
Vonage: 650.641.1243

-Original Message-
From: Charles Wu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 
10:46 AM

To: 'WISPA 

RE: [WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy was:3650 equipment

2006-05-27 Thread Patrick Leary
I favor substantial use rules and also agree in rejecting squatters rights.
A method of issuing licenses I like is the following:

1. licenses are broken up into regional and local.
2. the government sets the price in advance
3. competing parties submit proposals
4. the proposals are evaluated on their benefit to the public
5. parties are also evaluated on their ability to implement
6. a proposal is picked, a license awarded, a timeframe set
7. parties failing in the timeframe requirement lose their license

That is a good model in some cases. I also think that auctions have their
place, but have to be carefully managed and evidence of collusion needs to
be punished massively. I also think unlicensed has its place, and I am all
for a registration requirement (not a license, but a registration of active
base stations for ALL commercial UL operators), which is something I
conceived of and proposed to the Spectrum Policy Task Force back in 2002.

With all do respect John, I do not buy the power to the people argument.
And I don't buy that all WISPs are pure and good and have the public
interest at heart. Most WISPs deploy to fill their capacity, they do not
deploy to address equity issues or to make sure that anyone in the cell that
wants access gets it. Most WISPs are just as much capitalists pigs as the
big guys, only on a smaller scale. And that is fine, but let's not pretend
there is some sort of special nobility just by virtue of being a WISP. I've
seen my share of folks that I consider noble, but it does not make their
business noble. And I've seen more than my share of opportunist scumbags
praying on customers, abusing rules, etc.

Nothing prevents anyone from creating a business plan that can attract
capital and investment and the government is under no obligation to offer
commercial rights to those that cannot. Many WISPs started very humbly and
succeeded brick by brick and now have multi-million dollar businesses.

If a BWA-dedicated UL is finally created, you should realize that anyone can
use it, even those companies you revile. There are no rights for use by
WISPs only.

Patrick Leary
AVP Marketing
Alvarion, Inc.
o: 650.314.2628
c: 760.580.0080
Vonage: 650.641.1243

-Original Message-
From: John Scrivner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 7:48 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Middle Class Spectrum Policy was:3650 equipment

It would be amazing if one time our government could get spectrum policy 
right. Up until now they have not got it right even once regarding 
access to spectrum in my opinion. Unlicensed is closer to right than 
licensed because it at least allows other entrants into the space other 
than just the ultra-rich. It gives back some of the power to the people. 
Unlicensed is wrong because it has no possibility of protections at all 
for those who use this to build their business. That completely stinks.. 
License auctions create a land grab mentality with little to no 
thought given to how people will be served in the long run. We have seen 
this fail time and time again.

The right way is for us to finally have a band dedicated to broadband 
use with some right to run a little power...please!... for God's 
sake!...give us some power one time! It would start as unlicensed with 
registration required. As the band could be proven to be substantially 
used (serving real customers with actual services) by an operator then 
licenses would be issued. A license would be for only one base station 
though. If an operator shows he has customers served on a base station 
then he can apply for a license. No more blanket region licenses. The 
substantial use provision means nobody gets squatters rights. You either 
prove you are using the band to serve actual customers on a base station 
or you run unlicensed until you can prove substantial use.

Then the incentive is for operators to build out a network and serve 
customers as quickly as possible to attain licenses as opposed to buying 
large regions and squatting on licenses leaving them unused for years or 
even decades as we see now. If they price it too high then people do not 
buy service from the operator and the operator cannot get the protection 
of a license. Note the operator has the right to serve immediately as an 
unlicensed operator and has an incentive to serve customers as quickly 
as possible to gain license protections. 

I think that the licenses should be contingent upon public good for 
perpetuity. If public good is lost in the future (by an operator who 
over-prices or sells to a mega-corp who does not care) then the license 
could become open again if people request this.  Charge too much, lose 
your license. Sell to megasuck.net, lose your license. Provide crap 
service, lose your license. Note that this does not mean you cannot 
operate there if you lose your license. It just means you lose your 
exclusive license and right to impose interference protection. It means 
competition