Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
The thing is, he has no constitutional authority for ANY of this. Instead, we have the three blind mice trying to make the country work. WE know what we're doing and how to get it done. They need to respect that they don't know squat and need to get the heck out of the way. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ From: Mark Nash Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 12:28 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire As much as I can feel for you Sam, put yourself in government-man-decision-maker shoes. Put your money where you think it will be successful, and small players can't provide that assurance. It's just too much of a gamble. That's how I would feel I would think. This is a high-tech service better left up to high-tech companies. (from their perspective). Never mind that there is success happening in small doses everywhere. It's a question of confidence and CYA'ing on the part of the decision-makers. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
In support of your points On the news the other day, they pointed out a dituation where the city of Wash DC is having the cops harrass the Bicycle Taxis, and got Politions on the record saying that they are trying to find a way to regulate them. The count is something like 50 total bucycle Taxi across the city. Isn't this a bit extreme and wasteful to go after a few bicycle riders? They literally work hard to give others enjoyment, a public good. My point here is... if the government can see it, they will try to regulate it. Thats what governments do, they regulate things. The government really needs to stop, they are sticking their nose into way to many businesses, taking regulation to a point of harrasment instead of a public good. Its the whole thing about making regulation in search of a problem, instead of the proper way which is indentifying a clear problem and regulating to solve it. Or in my opinion, to get out of the way and let the free market solve it. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: MDK To: WISPA General List Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 8:57 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Mark, you seem to think that what I'm advocating is a 'dream' or some kind of old fashioned fantasy. To correct your mistake here, I must point out that the system you seem to want to continue has brought this nation to the brink of bankrtuptcy, destroyed our industrial and scientific base, our technology base has eroded, our information age has enabled our competitors now, and we're rapidly proceeding to a nation full of people who feed each other at mcdonald's, mow each other's lawns, provide internet, and lend each other money - or, in terms of reality, a fantasy. The history of our current telecom industry points to only one thing... Congress is wholesale inept at regulating business, services or industry. We have 5 bazillion laws, all being targeted for efforts to gain advantage for this or that segment, or for this, or against that industry. While we have played in the tide pools, away from the ocean sized breakers of Congressional and Federal controls, it has abundantly clear that what is going on is not sustainable, not good, not even faintly viable. I am not advocating a fantasy... I am advocating a restoration of the PROPER governance our constitution provided and served us so incredibly well while we stuck to it. And, has done such immense damage when we ignored it. I am confused about why you think that WISPA and all other ISP organizations should not propose a clear philosophical message that FREE MARKETS WORK. Duhh, we know they do, we compete as best we can, hobbled by the regulatory structure that grants others certain advantages, etc. There's NOTHING wrong with the idea that Congress should set about undoing the sins of the last generations. Furthermore, as someone said, WISPA itself should, just because it is an advocacy organization, have a clear and unambiguous philosophy on what the organization is going to advocate for, not just WHO it advocates for - and I recall the heated discussions on that topic. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
TOM DeREGGI, I would like to make you a Serious Business Offer. OK? Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can't turn me down, as you'll come to understand in a moment. Here's the deal. You're going to start a business or expand the one you've got now. It doesn't really matter what you do or what you're going to do. I'll partner with you no matter what business you're in - as long as it's legal. But I can't give you any capital - you have to come up with that on your own. I won't give you any labor - that's definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you're allowed to operate your business. That's my role in the affair - to tell you what to do. Now in return for my rules, I'm going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn't it? I think so. Of course, that's half of your profits. You're also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you've got to cover my expenses for promulgating all the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you're my partner. It's only fair. Now. after you've put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you've worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you'd like to cash out - to finally live the good life. Whether or not this is fair - some people never can afford to retire - is a different argument. As your partner, I'm happy for you to sell whenever you'd like. because our agreement says if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time. I know. I know. you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all the labor. That's all true. But I've done my part, too. I've collected 50% of the profits each year. And I've always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business. Oh. and one more thing. Even after you've sold the business and paid all my fees. I'd recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you've been retired for years, when you die, you'll have to pay me 50% of whatever your estate is worth. After all, I've got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don't think it's fair for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children. All in all, if you're a very successful entrepreneur. if you're one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public. you'll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life. Thanks so much. I'm sure you'll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me. But it doesn't really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me - or cheat me on any of my fees or rules - I'll break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail. That's how civil society is supposed to work, right? This is Amerika, isn't it? That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs. This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America HYPERLINK http://www.stansberryresearch.comwww.stansberryresearch.com Chuck Profito 209-988-7388 CV-Access, Inc. www.cv-access.com / cprofito'at'cv-access.com Providing Broadband Internet Access to California's Rural Central Valley From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Tom DeReggi Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 6:18 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire In support of your points On the news the other day, they pointed out a dituation where the city of Wash DC is having the cops harrass the Bicycle Taxis, and got Politions on the record saying that they are trying to find a way to regulate them. The count is something like 50 total bucycle Taxi across the city. Isn't this a bit extreme and wasteful to go after a few bicycle riders? They literally work hard to give others enjoyment, a public good. My point here is... if the government can see it, they will try to regulate it. Thats what governments do, they regulate things. The government really needs to stop, they are sticking their nose into way to many businesses, taking regulation to a point of harrasment instead of a public good. Its the whole thing about making regulation in search of a problem, instead of the proper way which is indentifying a clear problem and regulating to solve it. Or in my opinion, to get out of the way and let the free market solve
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
I honestly don't think we're working with the government so much as we're working with the market. We are a bunch of Davids trying to play in a game that is dominated by Goliaths. I know how that bible fable goes so we don't need to get sidetracked on a lecture about how that story ended... My point is that our market has huge players affecting change and us small guys have been able to succeed to varying degrees BECAUSE we haven't been on the radar. Our government fully believes that the best-suited companies to deliver broadband to the masses are these bigger players, and I tend to agree with them. I've always considered myself a niche provider, and as soon as the nice becomes attractive to a company with real money, slow or fast, I will realize the inevitable decline of my wireless business. Not because of the government, but because of the market. For myself, this uphill battle is stress better left up to someone else. My business plans are to ride the wireless wave as long as I can, and venture into other businesses and make them valuable with the revenues generated by the wireless business. I just released the first version of my first iPhone/iPad game on Apple's App Store, for instance. I'm thinking of starting a landscaping business (not WORKING it, just owning it). I think a music/movie studio is in my future. Eggs in several baskets. That kind of thing. In the meantime, the wireless business has to be tended to and made everything it can be. On 7/19/2011 7:20 PM, RickG wrote: Mark, You just made my point, it appears to me that WISPA, many WISP's, and small business owners in general have done their best to work with the system. And what rewards do we get for it? I dont know about you but the system is killing me! Mark my words, unless things change, the system that is beginning to fail us now will eventually totally fail us. Sorry for sounding so pessimistic but after watching our government at work after 35 years, the only thing positive is that it can change if we want it to but it's gonna be a long, hard fight. On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net mailto:markl...@uwol.net wrote: You absolutely have a right to chase your dreams in this country, as opposed to other countries. But you have to temper yourself with the absolute fact that you belong to a system. Successful business owners either work within the system, or find a way around it. Do what you can, when you can, to affect change, but to try to wholesale uproot the system is going to cause you persistent pain and anguish. On 7/19/2011 8:15 AM, Andy Trimmell wrote: +1 *From:*wireless-boun...@wispa.org mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] *On Behalf Of *RickG *Sent:* Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:04 PM *To:* fai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net; WISPA General List *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services *With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless.* On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net wrote: I am going to address your points backwards:- You wrote --- And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. - We have been wireline ISP's first, since 2000, if you really believe what you wrote (above) then you are truly mis-informed... The simple facts are ... it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services . and it is THE DEREGULATION over the past 5 years, that has been KILLING the ISP's off. You forget, that if you don't have the ability to connect to other networks in a fair and equitable manner, you are not going to be able to continue in this business. Get a grip of reality and the full picture.. you are playing with a DUAL EDGE sword here... ---You wrote- You seem to think that the answer is to find
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
But the issue is not that we can't compete in the market, but that the government is making it more lucrative for the bigger players to compete in our markets (and not providing those incentives to the smaller players). I currently compete against DSL, cable and cellular for over 80% of my subs, I don't need the government making it even easier for them. On 7/20/11 10:28 AM, Mark Nash wrote: I honestly don't think we're working with the government so much as we're working with the market. We are a bunch of Davids trying to play in a game that is dominated by Goliaths. I know how that bible fable goes so we don't need to get sidetracked on a lecture about how that story ended... My point is that our market has huge players affecting change and us small guys have been able to succeed to varying degrees BECAUSE we haven't been on the radar. Our government fully believes that the best-suited companies to deliver broadband to the masses are these bigger players, and I tend to agree with them. I've always considered myself a niche provider, and as soon as the nice becomes attractive to a company with real money, slow or fast, I will realize the inevitable decline of my wireless business. Not because of the government, but because of the market. For myself, this uphill battle is stress better left up to someone else. My business plans are to ride the wireless wave as long as I can, and venture into other businesses and make them valuable with the revenues generated by the wireless business. I just released the first version of my first iPhone/iPad game on Apple's App Store, for instance. I'm thinking of starting a landscaping business (not WORKING it, just owning it). I think a music/movie studio is in my future. Eggs in several baskets. That kind of thing. In the meantime, the wireless business has to be tended to and made everything it can be. On 7/19/2011 7:20 PM, RickG wrote: Mark, You just made my point, it appears to me that WISPA, many WISP's, and small business owners in general have done their best to work with the system. And what rewards do we get for it? I dont know about you but the system is killing me! Mark my words, unless things change, the system that is beginning to fail us now will eventually totally fail us. Sorry for sounding so pessimistic but after watching our government at work after 35 years, the only thing positive is that it can change if we want it to but it's gonna be a long, hard fight. On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net mailto:markl...@uwol.net wrote: You absolutely have a right to chase your dreams in this country, as opposed to other countries. But you have to temper yourself with the absolute fact that you belong to a system. Successful business owners either work within the system, or find a way around it. Do what you can, when you can, to affect change, but to try to wholesale uproot the system is going to cause you persistent pain and anguish. On 7/19/2011 8:15 AM, Andy Trimmell wrote: +1 *From:*wireless-boun...@wispa.org mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] *On Behalf Of *RickG *Sent:* Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:04 PM *To:* fai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net; WISPA General List *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services *With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless.* On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net wrote: I am going to address your points backwards:- You wrote --- And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. - We have been wireline ISP's first, since 2000, if you really believe what you wrote (above) then you are truly mis-informed... The simple facts are ... it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services . and it is THE DEREGULATION over the past 5 years, that has been KILLING
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 14:32, Mike Hammett wispawirel...@ics-il.netwrote: ** I think people are saying the government needs to stop helping everyone. Some people are saying that, others are saying that the help needs to be spread around a bit more fairly (for some value of fair). David Smith MVN.net WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
ATT CEO Randall Stephenson spoke at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners summer meeting in Los Angeles, where he called his company's copper-based DSL broadband technology obsolete. This is a stunning admission from one of the nation's largest DSL providers. As ATT focuses more and more on wireless and continues pushing its fiber-to-the-node services instead of faster fiber-to-the-home or even cable, it's leaving millions of Americans in the dust. And today its CEO just admitted as much. For many in rural areas DSL is the only option, and as of the end of ATT's first quarter it still has roughly 10.2 million DSL subscribers. And it's not as if ATT plans to continue upgrading all of its customers over to U-verse. Earlier this year, ATT executive John Stankey told an investor conference that the company would likely halt its building plans after it brings the technology to about 55 percent to 60 percent of the homes it serves. Stankey also admitted that about 20 percent of the homes in ATT's service area are not a heavy emphasis for investment. But if DSL is obsolete as Stephenson says, then what about the Americans who are forced to rely on that as their only method of broadband access? From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Sam Tetherow Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:52 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire But the issue is not that we can't compete in the market, but that the government is making it more lucrative for the bigger players to compete in our markets (and not providing those incentives to the smaller players). I currently compete against DSL, cable and cellular for over 80% of my subs, I don't need the government making it even easier for them. On 7/20/11 10:28 AM, Mark Nash wrote: I honestly don't think we're working with the government so much as we're working with the market. We are a bunch of Davids trying to play in a game that is dominated by Goliaths. I know how that bible fable goes so we don't need to get sidetracked on a lecture about how that story ended... My point is that our market has huge players affecting change and us small guys have been able to succeed to varying degrees BECAUSE we haven't been on the radar. Our government fully believes that the best-suited companies to deliver broadband to the masses are these bigger players, and I tend to agree with them. I've always considered myself a niche provider, and as soon as the nice becomes attractive to a company with real money, slow or fast, I will realize the inevitable decline of my wireless business. Not because of the government, but because of the market. For myself, this uphill battle is stress better left up to someone else. My business plans are to ride the wireless wave as long as I can, and venture into other businesses and make them valuable with the revenues generated by the wireless business. I just released the first version of my first iPhone/iPad game on Apple's App Store, for instance. I'm thinking of starting a landscaping business (not WORKING it, just owning it). I think a music/movie studio is in my future. Eggs in several baskets. That kind of thing. In the meantime, the wireless business has to be tended to and made everything it can be. On 7/19/2011 7:20 PM, RickG wrote: Mark, You just made my point, it appears to me that WISPA, many WISP's, and small business owners in general have done their best to work with the system. And what rewards do we get for it? I dont know about you but the system is killing me! Mark my words, unless things change, the system that is beginning to fail us now will eventually totally fail us. Sorry for sounding so pessimistic but after watching our government at work after 35 years, the only thing positive is that it can change if we want it to but it's gonna be a long, hard fight. On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net wrote: You absolutely have a right to chase your dreams in this country, as opposed to other countries. But you have to temper yourself with the absolute fact that you belong to a system. Successful business owners either work within the system, or find a way around it. Do what you can, when you can, to affect change, but to try to wholesale uproot the system is going to cause you persistent pain and anguish. On 7/19/2011 8:15 AM, Andy Trimmell wrote: +1 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of RickG Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:04 PM To: fai...@snappydsl.net; WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
+1 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of RickG Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:04 PM To: fai...@snappydsl.net; WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless. On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net wrote: I am going to address your points backwards:- You wrote --- And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. - We have been wireline ISP's first, since 2000, if you really believe what you wrote (above) then you are truly mis-informed... The simple facts are ... it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services . and it is THE DEREGULATION over the past 5 years, that has been KILLING the ISP's off. You forget, that if you don't have the ability to connect to other networks in a fair and equitable manner, you are not going to be able to continue in this business. Get a grip of reality and the full picture.. you are playing with a DUAL EDGE sword here... ---You wrote- You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. Not sure where you are coming up with this from ...however each and every one has his own right to interpret the events . You wrote - Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. hehe.. when you start off a paragraph with this administration or do a follow up with the previous administration.. that is as partisan as one can get I agree with your 'Principle Numero Uno', but you are harking at the wrong organization.. it is not in WISPA's charter or mission, maybe should be a member of the SBA association, or FISPA or COMPTEL ... but then again you will have to get your head straight about how the US Gov. has operated for the last 200 years WISPA's mission has been to address issues related to Wireless, (not business, not telephone service, not hosted services, etc etc)... While I understand your frustration with the Gov., and do agree with some of your points, but what you keep putting forward on the WISPA forums is more like 'Don Quixote Tilting at the windmills Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom On 7/16/2011 12:59 AM, MDK wrote: A plan of action? If I said this is what WISPA should do and laid it out in detail, all you'd do is say who are you? Why should we hacve to do what you say? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
has great internet service, we've quibbled over dollars and rules and tried to slant them for us against others - the very thinking we must now defeat. I have said we all stand on freedom, or fall together, and for this I have been branded as a radical, idiot, moron, right wing extremist, and so on - as such principles are, according to the self proclaimed 'wise men' of the group, outdated and unworkable. Until we need them, of course. Even the tortured and twisted explanation below is still trying to defend the big government crapola, and by now, it better be as clear and obvious to you, as a just hammered thumbnail, that NOTHING ELSE MATTERS IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE IN BUSINESS. I was at founding of WISPA. I was there within a week or two of the interest list being formed, and I joined and donated money, until previous people of WISPA were found by me to be advocating FCC mandates on us. At which I resigned and will not rejoin until my money is no longer at risk of being used against our basic and fundamental freedoms. YEARS have been sqandered, because WISPA failed to advocate for freedom first, a consistent, principled basis for everything said, advocacy positions, etc. Now, you have to suddenly get religion, because EVERYONE's freedom is at stake, even our competition's,. Rather than advocate for that, WISPA now has a history just as compromised as ATT's and every lobbyist's, because it stood for little more than trying to bend the rules to favor US instead of THEM. Expediently, we've discovered that open markets mean open to competition, as well, something not advocated by WISPA before. I said in 2009 that there were people headed for Congress, a sea change coming, and that WISPA needed to get politically allied with the pro freedom crowd. They were called radicals and idiots on this list instead. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com mailto:forbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org mailto:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
You absolutely have a right to chase your dreams in this country, as opposed to other countries. But you have to temper yourself with the absolute fact that you belong to a system. Successful business owners either work within the system, or find a way around it. Do what you can, when you can, to affect change, but to try to wholesale uproot the system is going to cause you persistent pain and anguish. On 7/19/2011 8:15 AM, Andy Trimmell wrote: +1 *From:*wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] *On Behalf Of *RickG *Sent:* Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:04 PM *To:* fai...@snappydsl.net; WISPA General List *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services *With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless.* On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net wrote: I am going to address your points backwards:- You wrote --- And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. - We have been wireline ISP's first, since 2000, if you really believe what you wrote (above) then you are truly mis-informed... The simple facts are ... it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services . and it is THE DEREGULATION over the past 5 years, that has been KILLING the ISP's off. You forget, that if you don't have the ability to connect to other networks in a fair and equitable manner, you are not going to be able to continue in this business. Get a grip of reality and the full picture.. you are playing with a DUAL EDGE sword here... ---You wrote- You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. Not sure where you are coming up with this from ...however each and every one has his own right to interpret the events . You wrote - Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. hehe.. when you start off a paragraph with this administration or do a follow up with the previous administration.. that is as partisan as one can get I agree with your 'Principle Numero Uno', but you are harking at the wrong organization.. it is not in WISPA's charter or mission, maybe should be a member of the SBA association, or FISPA or COMPTEL ... but then again you will have to get your head straight about how the US Gov. has operated for the last 200 years WISPA's mission has been to address issues related to Wireless, (not business, not telephone service, not hosted services, etc etc)... While I understand your frustration with the Gov., and do agree with some of your points, but what you keep putting forward on the WISPA forums is more like 'Don Quixote Tilting at the windmills Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom On 7/16/2011 12:59 AM, MDK wrote: A plan of action? If I said this is what WISPA should do and laid it out in detail, all you'd do is say who are you? Why should we hacve to do what you say? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Mark, you seem to think that what I'm advocating is a 'dream' or some kind of old fashioned fantasy. To correct your mistake here, I must point out that the system you seem to want to continue has brought this nation to the brink of bankrtuptcy, destroyed our industrial and scientific base, our technology base has eroded, our information age has enabled our competitors now, and we're rapidly proceeding to a nation full of people who feed each other at mcdonald's, mow each other's lawns, provide internet, and lend each other money - or, in terms of reality, a fantasy. The history of our current telecom industry points to only one thing... Congress is wholesale inept at regulating business, services or industry. We have 5 bazillion laws, all being targeted for efforts to gain advantage for this or that segment, or for this, or against that industry. While we have played in the tide pools, away from the ocean sized breakers of Congressional and Federal controls, it has abundantly clear that what is going on is not sustainable, not good, not even faintly viable. I am not advocating a fantasy... I am advocating a restoration of the PROPER governance our constitution provided and served us so incredibly well while we stuck to it. And, has done such immense damage when we ignored it. I am confused about why you think that WISPA and all other ISP organizations should not propose a clear philosophical message that FREE MARKETS WORK. Duhh, we know they do, we compete as best we can, hobbled by the regulatory structure that grants others certain advantages, etc. There's NOTHING wrong with the idea that Congress should set about undoing the sins of the last generations. Furthermore, as someone said, WISPA itself should, just because it is an advocacy organization, have a clear and unambiguous philosophy on what the organization is going to advocate for, not just WHO it advocates for - and I recall the heated discussions on that topic. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Mark, You just made my point, it appears to me that WISPA, many WISP's, and small business owners in general have done their best to work with the system. And what rewards do we get for it? I dont know about you but the system is killing me! Mark my words, unless things change, the system that is beginning to fail us now will eventually totally fail us. Sorry for sounding so pessimistic but after watching our government at work after 35 years, the only thing positive is that it can change if we want it to but it's gonna be a long, hard fight. On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net wrote: You absolutely have a right to chase your dreams in this country, as opposed to other countries. But you have to temper yourself with the absolute fact that you belong to a system. Successful business owners either work within the system, or find a way around it. Do what you can, when you can, to affect change, but to try to wholesale uproot the system is going to cause you persistent pain and anguish. On 7/19/2011 8:15 AM, Andy Trimmell wrote: +1 ** ** *From:* wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.orgwireless-boun...@wispa.org] *On Behalf Of *RickG *Sent:* Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:04 PM *To:* fai...@snappydsl.net; WISPA General List *Subject:* Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire ** ** it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services *With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless.* On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net wrote: I am going to address your points backwards:- You wrote --- And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. - We have been wireline ISP's first, since 2000, if you really believe what you wrote (above) then you are truly mis-informed... The simple facts are ... it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services . and it is THE DEREGULATION over the past 5 years, that has been KILLING the ISP's off. You forget, that if you don't have the ability to connect to other networks in a fair and equitable manner, you are not going to be able to continue in this business. Get a grip of reality and the full picture.. you are playing with a DUAL EDGE sword here... ---You wrote- You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. Not sure where you are coming up with this from ...however each and every one has his own right to interpret the events . You wrote - Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. hehe.. when you start off a paragraph with this administration or do a follow up with the previous administration.. that is as partisan as one can get I agree with your 'Principle Numero Uno', but you are harking at the wrong organization.. it is not in WISPA's charter or mission, maybe should be a member of the SBA association, or FISPA or COMPTEL ... but then again you will have to get your head straight about how the US Gov. has operated for the last 200 years WISPA's mission has been to address issues related to Wireless, (not business, not telephone service, not hosted services, etc etc)... While I understand your frustration with the Gov., and do agree with some of your points, but what you keep putting forward on the WISPA forums is more like 'Don Quixote Tilting at the windmills Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom On 7/16/2011 12:59 AM, MDK wrote: A plan of action? If I said
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you to watch closely what we inform membership, prepare to be involved because unless you are content with the current frequencies and rules we are under you will directly be affected by this Congressional action. If we give in to these irrational rules don't think Congress or the legacy characters will stop there, if they sell the revenue model successfully they could go after existing frequencies too
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
at risk of being used against our basic and fundamental freedoms. YEARS have been sqandered, because WISPA failed to advocate for freedom first, a consistent, principled basis for everything said, advocacy positions, etc. Now, you have to suddenly get religion, because EVERYONE's freedom is at stake, even our competition's,. Rather than advocate for that, WISPA now has a history just as compromised as ATT's and every lobbyist's, because it stood for little more than trying to bend the rules to favor US instead of THEM. Expediently, we've discovered that open markets mean open to competition, as well, something not advocated by WISPA before. I said in 2009 that there were people headed for Congress, a sea change coming, and that WISPA needed to get politically allied with the pro freedom crowd. They were called radicals and idiots on this list instead. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
markets mean open to competition, as well, something not advocated by WISPA before. I said in 2009 that there were people headed for Congress, a sea change coming, and that WISPA needed to get politically allied with the pro freedom crowd. They were called radicals and idiots on this list instead. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Ok, lets get this in perspective. I am one, uno, sole, lone person. While I believe I am right, I am NOT interested in saying I have a right to impose my views on all this stuff on all the other members of WISPA. Two years ago, I asked, prodded, and then nagged, to see if WISPA would voluntarily attempt to get some kind of consensus or perhaps at least write a standard of principles when it comes to the business philosophy. I was booed down. Like it or not, the semi-political aspects of business, being forced on us by an intrusive government, have to be dealt with. Do you as members believe you have a RIGHT to be in business? Without needing a license from some authority? Do you actually believe in free and unencumbered enterprise? Or does consensus fall elsewhere philosophically? What are the guiding principles that drive WISPA's policy stands? Is it just advantage for ourselves, however or wherever it can be found, including trying to get public money with strings that further tie our industry, or do you shoot for freedom first? If it's not the latter, then me joining will not change the philosophy of WISPA and it's advocacy, and I see it's efforts as ultimately being negative, not positive for my life and future - translated as no money from me. Previous conversations on this list lead to a realization that some people are afraid to advocate a philosophy that runs counter to whatever ideology the regulators hold - as if being yes men will curry favor and therefore crumbs will fall in greater quantity from the master's table in DC. But if you had a clear philosophy up front, I think you could attract far more allies, the kind that stick with you, and help change the conversation. You keep asking for people to to set up and WORK for what you want, but continue to refuse to say what it is you intend to work for. I again ask for the leadership to demonstrate leadership and make a clear and unambiguous philosophical stand - and if I can agree with it, then I will support with time and dollars and energy. But until I know it's something I can back with a clear conscience, I (and others, as well) remain on the sidelines. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercy forbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 3:19 PM To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire I'm sorry I guess I missed you at the Legislative Committee list when I was putting this together sending out drafts and asking for comments and help /sarcasm. WISPA is a representation of those who show up to help formulate consensus and policy, not my personal views. So easy to throw darts at the end result when you wouldn't be part of the process, isn't it? WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
+100 Rick. And it is this fundamental philosophical perspective that I am asking WISPA to answer - what is the official position? If there is none, then are all the positions and statements and arguments just convenient at the moment? Does WISPA advocate for things that will result in higher regulatory hurdles? Where is the We have a fundamental belief that free enterprise, unencumbered by artificial spectrum shortages or regulatory barriers is the only viable solution to America's broadband needs statement? And a few other statements of principles against which every written statement and every proposal is measured? Thus, all committees and all writers and all communication remains consistent in philosophy and message? Is this being political? Soemwhat, but the need to be so has been shoved upon us and if we're not dealing with it, then I see little hope of being a conversation leader, rather than just a I wanna be heard like all the rest. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ From: RickG Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 6:03 PM To: fai...@snappydsl.net ; WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Well, yeah, necessarily. Where I lived the service got worse. On 7/16/2011 10:08 PM, Fred Goldstein wrote: At 7/16/2011 09:41 PM, Scott Reed wrote: I also noticed that the breakup of Ma Bell degraded service in many areas. A monopoly by market demand is not necessarily bad. A monopoly by regulation is bad. Well, not necessarily. Ma Bell's service was never consistent before the breakup, but their P.R. was good. The monopoly occurred naturally from the time the Bell patents expired (1893) until the last competitors were gone in the 1930s. There were CLECs galore (called independents at the time, but not the geographic-monopoly independents of later years) in the 1893-1920 era. Bell bought Pupin's patent on the loading coil in the 1890s, which gave them a monopoly on long distance (10 miles or so), but local service was competitive in many places. Independents pioneered dial; Bell was all-manual until the 1920s. However, the economics of natural monopoly are real. The larger market share means a lower unit cost, so the big guy almost always wins. So by 1934, when the Communications Act was passed, the monopoly already existed; FCC and state rules simply locked it in place (made it de jure). The idea of TA96 was to de-monopolize. Since the natural monopoly still exists, unbundling is a way to open the market, but the 2001 FCC turned against it and the current one remains opposed, law notwithstanding. The public Internet only exists because the FCC in 1966 started the Computer Inquiries, which created a bright line distinction between carriage (basic service) and content (enhanced service), especially in 1980's Computer II. The ILECs hated that. The FCC also rammed sharing and resale down their throats around 1976 -- before that, you couldn't lease a line between two companies unless one of them was a licensed common carrier (e.g., Western Union, one of Ma Bell's few authorized wholesale resellers). How could you have an ISP without those rules? However, in 2005 the FCC revoked the Computer Inquiry rules, in response to a Verizon request, which is what led to the whole Network Neutrality kerfuffle. The no regulation approach would most likely involve granting ILECs full property rights on their networks, so they would have unregulated monopolies. Who does that benefit? It's a banana republic situation. Every civilized country regulates its monopolies or keeps them under public ownership. Of course property rights are themselves an artificial legal construct, so I suppose a Somali-level approach would be that you could string wires, but you'd need to hire warlords to guard them, and could steal whatever your warlords were able to rassle from competitors. Ironically, Somalia does have a competitive mobile phone sector, since there is no government to regulate it and the warlord armies do guard their towers, but no wireline sector to speak of. WISPs are less dependent on wireline rules than wireline ISPs, who are largely hurting due to malevolent FCC policies. But they still depend on spectrum regulatory policies. which the FCC makes consistent with the law. And many depend on wireline backhaul, where regulation is the only thing that keeps the monopolies from gouging worse than they do. (I've got an article in the works about how the real digital divide is the way the ILECs have kept the fiber dividend -- the low per-bit cost of capacity on fiber -- away from their monopoly ratepayers, even though it operates in competitive markets. On 7/16/2011 9:25 PM, Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Well...again you have to go further back in history...before telecom regulation ..it was a Ma Bell monopoly ..and without regulation...there is a very good chance that it will again become a Ma Bell monopoly or maybe a duopoly... Let's not forget that... Faisal On Jul 16, 2011, at 9:03 PM, RickG rgunder...@gmail.com mailto:rgunder...@gmail.com wrote: it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- Scott Reed Owner NewWays Networking, LLC Wireless Networking Network Design, Installation and
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
At 7/17/2011 07:22 AM, Scott Reed wrote: Well, yeah, necessarily. Where I lived the service got worse. I presume you mean that ironically, as a sample of one does not indicate a general case. Service got considerably better for my employer at the time, where I worked in telecommunications. Competition helps. And for the first couple of years, the still-fettered Bells tried pretty hard to do a good job with the businesses they were given. On 7/16/2011 10:08 PM, Fred Goldstein wrote: At 7/16/2011 09:41 PM, Scott Reed wrote: I also noticed that the breakup of Ma Bell degraded service in many areas. A monopoly by market demand is not necessarily bad. A monopoly by regulation is bad. Well, not necessarily. Ma Bell's service was never consistent before the breakup, but their P.R. was good. The monopoly occurred naturally from the time the Bell patents expired (1893) until the last competitors were gone in the 1930s. There were CLECs galore (called independents at the time, but not the geographic-monopoly independents of later years) in the 1893-1920 era. Bell bought Pupin's patent on the loading coil in the 1890s, which gave them a monopoly on long distance (10 miles or so), but local service was competitive in many places. Independents pioneered dial; Bell was all-manual until the 1920s. However, the economics of natural monopoly are real. The larger market share means a lower unit cost, so the big guy almost always wins. So by 1934, when the Communications Act was passed, the monopoly already existed; FCC and state rules simply locked it in place (made it de jure). The idea of TA96 was to de-monopolize. Since the natural monopoly still exists, unbundling is a way to open the market, but the 2001 FCC turned against it and the current one remains opposed, law notwithstanding. The public Internet only exists because the FCC in 1966 started the Computer Inquiries, which created a bright line distinction between carriage (basic service) and content (enhanced service), especially in 1980's Computer II. The ILECs hated that. The FCC also rammed sharing and resale down their throats around 1976 -- before that, you couldn't lease a line between two companies unless one of them was a licensed common carrier (e.g., Western Union, one of Ma Bell's few authorized wholesale resellers). How could you have an ISP without those rules? However, in 2005 the FCC revoked the Computer Inquiry rules, in response to a Verizon request, which is what led to the whole Network Neutrality kerfuffle. The no regulation approach would most likely involve granting ILECs full property rights on their networks, so they would have unregulated monopolies. Who does that benefit? It's a banana republic situation. Every civilized country regulates its monopolies or keeps them under public ownership. Of course property rights are themselves an artificial legal construct, so I suppose a Somali-level approach would be that you could string wires, but you'd need to hire warlords to guard them, and could steal whatever your warlords were able to rassle from competitors. Ironically, Somalia does have a competitive mobile phone sector, since there is no government to regulate it and the warlord armies do guard their towers, but no wireline sector to speak of. WISPs are less dependent on wireline rules than wireline ISPs, who are largely hurting due to malevolent FCC policies. But they still depend on spectrum regulatory policies. which the FCC makes consistent with the law. And many depend on wireline backhaul, where regulation is the only thing that keeps the monopolies from gouging worse than they do. (I've got an article in the works about how the real digital divide is the way the ILECs have kept the fiber dividend -- the low per-bit cost of capacity on fiber -- away from their monopoly ratepayers, even though it operates in competitive markets. On 7/16/2011 9:25 PM, Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Well...again you have to go further back in history...before telecom regulation ..it was a Ma Bell monopoly ..and without regulation...there is a very good chance that it will again become a Ma Bell monopoly or maybe a duopoly... Let's not forget that... Faisal On Jul 16, 2011, at 9:03 PM, RickG mailto:rgunder...@gmail.comrgunder...@gmail.com wrote: it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
understand your frustration with the Gov., and do agree with some of your points, but what you keep putting forward on the WISPA forums is more like 'Don Quixote Tilting at the windmills Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom On 7/16/2011 12:59 AM, MDK wrote: A plan of action? If I said this is what WISPA should do and laid it out in detail, all you'd do is say who are you? Why should we hacve to do what you say? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead.. But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives:http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives:http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
At 7/17/2011 08:30 AM, Mike Hammett wrote: No policy that I'm aware of prevented anyone from being an ISP. It was a cost issue. Before 1996, there was open entry into the ISP market under Computer II/III, but that was largely limited to dial-up, leased lines, and telco transport services (such as Frame Relay). A handful of competitive access providers (CAPs, like MFS, Teleport and Brooks) had set up shop before TA96, based on a 1985 FCC ruling (among other thing, asserting interstate jurisdiction over fiber optics used to carry interstate or mixed-jurisdiction traffic, and thus pre-empting state barriers to entry), but only served a relatively few buildings, and were with narrow exceptions very unprofitable. TA96 did not create ISPs; it created CLECs, who in turn made life much easier for ISPs. (Before TA96, a few states had authorized CLECs on their own, often on rather limited terms, but TA96 made it a requirement.) It was certainly aimed at opening up markets and weakening ILEC monopoly power. In 1996, the dial-up ISP boom was creating congestion on the ILEC networks, and their three-year expansion cycle couldn't cope with it. So they were again petitioning the FCC to impose switched access charges on calls to enhanced service providers, a/k/a the Modem Tax. CLECs rode to the rescue by adding inbound dial capacity in a hurry. Wireless ISPs were theoretically authorized earlier, by relaxed rules for 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz unlicensed operation, but the technology was not ready for volume deployment until after the turn of the century. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals remanded some FCC pro-competition rules (even after the Supreme Court had approved the most contentious) and the post-2001 FCC used that as an excuse to roll back open competition. This mostly hinged on the so-called necessary and impair clauses of TA96. But I have some recent correspondence from the former Senate staff member who helped draft that language, and he points out that the current interpretation is far from what was intended and far from what it literally says in black letter law. (The stricter necessary part was only intended to cover intellectual property issues in the use of ILEC operational support software, not all UNEs.) FCC policy this past decade was very literally a War on ISPs, with CLECs not the direct target so much as an ally of the true enemy, ISPs. The FCC changed the reciprocal compensation rate on ISP-bound calls. It took away DSL line sharing. It took away ISP wholesale access to ILEC fiber networks such as FiOS and uVerse (hence open Pronto became closed uVerse). And it revoked the Computer II rules that allowed ISPs on ILEC facilities at all. WISPs are less impacted, of course, than urban wireline ISPs, who are now largely closed off from mass markets. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Thanks for the history lesson, Fred! I'm glad I pointed you this way from the replacement ISP-CLEC. These regulations certainly spurred the ecosystems that enable us to deploy cost effectively today. I've never been a fan of using someone else's network without a long-term agreement (IRU, for example). - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com On 7/17/2011 9:35 AM, Fred Goldstein wrote: At 7/17/2011 08:30 AM, Mike Hammett wrote: No policy that I'm aware of prevented anyone from being an ISP. It was a cost issue. Before 1996, there was open entry into the ISP market under Computer II/III, but that was largely limited to dial-up, leased lines, and telco transport services (such as Frame Relay). A handful of competitive access providers (CAPs, like MFS, Teleport and Brooks) had set up shop before TA96, based on a 1985 FCC ruling (among other thing, asserting interstate jurisdiction over fiber optics used to carry interstate or mixed-jurisdiction traffic, and thus pre-empting state barriers to entry), but only served a relatively few buildings, and were with narrow exceptions very unprofitable. TA96 did not create ISPs; it created CLECs, who in turn made life much easier for ISPs. (Before TA96, a few states had authorized CLECs on their own, often on rather limited terms, but TA96 made it a requirement.) It was certainly aimed at opening up markets and weakening ILEC monopoly power. In 1996, the dial-up ISP boom was creating congestion on the ILEC networks, and their three-year expansion cycle couldn't cope with it. So they were again petitioning the FCC to impose switched access charges on calls to enhanced service providers, a/k/a the Modem Tax. CLECs rode to the rescue by adding inbound dial capacity in a hurry. Wireless ISPs were theoretically authorized earlier, by relaxed rules for 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz unlicensed operation, but the technology was not ready for volume deployment until after the turn of the century. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals remanded some FCC pro-competition rules (even after the Supreme Court had approved the most contentious) and the post-2001 FCC used that as an excuse to roll back open competition. This mostly hinged on the so-called necessary and impair clauses of TA96. But I have some recent correspondence from the former Senate staff member who helped draft that language, and he points out that the current interpretation is far from what was intended and far from what it literally says in black letter law. (The stricter necessary part was only intended to cover intellectual property issues in the use of ILEC operational support software, not all UNEs.) FCC policy this past decade was very literally a War on ISPs, with CLECs not the direct target so much as an ally of the true enemy, ISPs. The FCC changed the reciprocal compensation rate on ISP-bound calls. It took away DSL line sharing. It took away ISP wholesale access to ILEC fiber networks such as FiOS and uVerse (hence open Pronto became closed uVerse). And it revoked the Computer II rules that allowed ISPs on ILEC facilities at all. WISPs are less impacted, of course, than urban wireline ISPs, who are now largely closed off from mass markets. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 tel:541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List:wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives:http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List:wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives:http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
At 7/17/2011 01:44 PM, RickG wrote: So it wasnt the 1996 Telecom Act that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services It didn't allow entry into the internet business per se. It allowed entry into the DSL business. It allowed entry into the local dial tone business. This is worth good money to some ISPs today, and it was necessary to prevent the PSTN from melting down during the dial-up boom in 1997-2000. The Bell alternative was to price ISPs too high to create congestion. It led to EELs, which allow some ISP-CLECs to reach non-local commercial customers at much lower rates than Special Access. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Bingo! It had nothing to do with the wireless business. On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Fred Goldstein fgoldst...@ionary.comwrote: At 7/17/2011 01:44 PM, RickG wrote: So it wasnt the 1996 Telecom Act that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services It didn't allow entry into the internet business per se. It allowed entry into the DSL business. It allowed entry into the local dial tone business. This is worth good money to some ISPs today, and it was necessary to prevent the PSTN from melting down during the dial-up boom in 1997-2000. The Bell alternative was to price ISPs too high to create congestion. It led to EELs, which allow some ISP-CLECs to reach non-local commercial customers at much lower rates than Special Access. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Well, it allows for VoIP, which we should all be doing to help our bottom lines. it also helps many WISPs obtain their connection to the net, but they should be doing something Bell-less anyway. - Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com On 7/17/2011 2:50 PM, RickG wrote: Bingo! It had nothing to do with the wireless business. On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Fred Goldstein fgoldst...@ionary.com mailto:fgoldst...@ionary.com wrote: At 7/17/2011 01:44 PM, RickG wrote: So it wasnt the 1996 Telecom Act that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services It didn't allow entry into the internet business per se. It allowed entry into the DSL business. It allowed entry into the local dial tone business. This is worth good money to some ISPs today, and it was necessary to prevent the PSTN from melting down during the dial-up boom in 1997-2000. The Bell alternative was to price ISPs too high to create congestion. It led to EELs, which allow some ISP-CLECs to reach non-local commercial customers at much lower rates than Special Access. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com http://ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 tel:%2B1%20617%20795%202701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Yes may be true .. but I think it would be naive this think so.. The evolution of the telecom and internet, I believe are inter-related, think of it this way.. if there was no internet, then why would folks need your wireless connection ? Least we forget before the internet, there were the BBS operators.. and a couple of very large ones.. CompuServe ? Prodigy ? IBM ? etc etc. those .no body was scrambling to build private networks to connect to them :) So my question to the wireless folks is .. if there was no Internet Boom, which had a significant relationship with the Telcom Boom.. where would you all be today ? The Wire line ISP's learned the hardway...that their ability to continue offering services was tied to 'Regulations'... and forces were already in play which the ISP's in general choose to ignore (it does not affect us..) and the outcome of those decision ended up being their demise. At the end of the day, we are all in the same boat.. (providing communication services) to our customers.. I believe it would be prudent to really think things thru before you / us / we / just take a blanket position on Regulation or DeRegulation. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom 7266 SW 48 Street Miami, Fl 33155 Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 Helpdesk: 305 663 5518 option 2 Email: supp...@snappydsl.net On 7/17/2011 3:50 PM, RickG wrote: Bingo! It had nothing to do with the wireless business. On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Fred Goldstein fgoldst...@ionary.com mailto:fgoldst...@ionary.com wrote: At 7/17/2011 01:44 PM, RickG wrote: So it wasnt the 1996 Telecom Act that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services It didn't allow entry into the internet business per se. It allowed entry into the DSL business. It allowed entry into the local dial tone business. This is worth good money to some ISPs today, and it was necessary to prevent the PSTN from melting down during the dial-up boom in 1997-2000. The Bell alternative was to price ISPs too high to create congestion. It led to EELs, which allow some ISP-CLECs to reach non-local commercial customers at much lower rates than Special Access. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com http://ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 tel:%2B1%20617%20795%202701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
no body was scrambling to build private networks to connect to them But those were early days. If left alone, we may have had something more advanced and even better. At the very least, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. ;) On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net wrote: Yes may be true .. but I think it would be naive this think so.. The evolution of the telecom and internet, I believe are inter-related, think of it this way.. if there was no internet, then why would folks need your wireless connection ? Least we forget before the internet, there were the BBS operators.. and a couple of very large ones.. CompuServe ? Prodigy ? IBM ? etc etc. those .no body was scrambling to build private networks to connect to them :) So my question to the wireless folks is .. if there was no Internet Boom, which had a significant relationship with the Telcom Boom.. where would you all be today ? The Wire line ISP's learned the hardway...that their ability to continue offering services was tied to 'Regulations'... and forces were already in play which the ISP's in general choose to ignore (it does not affect us..) and the outcome of those decision ended up being their demise. At the end of the day, we are all in the same boat.. (providing communication services) to our customers.. I believe it would be prudent to really think things thru before you / us / we / just take a blanket position on Regulation or DeRegulation. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom 7266 SW 48 Street Miami, Fl 33155 Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 Helpdesk: 305 663 5518 option 2 Email: supp...@snappydsl.net On 7/17/2011 3:50 PM, RickG wrote: Bingo! It had nothing to do with the wireless business. On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Fred Goldstein fgoldst...@ionary.comwrote: At 7/17/2011 01:44 PM, RickG wrote: So it wasnt the 1996 Telecom Act that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services It didn't allow entry into the internet business per se. It allowed entry into the DSL business. It allowed entry into the local dial tone business. This is worth good money to some ISPs today, and it was necessary to prevent the PSTN from melting down during the dial-up boom in 1997-2000. The Bell alternative was to price ISPs too high to create congestion. It led to EELs, which allow some ISP-CLECs to reach non-local commercial customers at much lower rates than Special Access. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 %2B1%20617%20795%202701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today!http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe:http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
, right wing extremist, and so on - as such principles are, according to the self proclaimed 'wise men' of the group, outdated and unworkable. Until we need them, of course. Even the tortured and twisted explanation below is still trying to defend the big government crapola, and by now, it better be as clear and obvious to you, as a just hammered thumbnail, that NOTHING ELSE MATTERS IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE IN BUSINESS. I was at founding of WISPA. I was there within a week or two of the interest list being formed, and I joined and donated money, until previous people of WISPA were found by me to be advocating FCC mandates on us. At which I resigned and will not rejoin until my money is no longer at risk of being used against our basic and fundamental freedoms. YEARS have been sqandered, because WISPA failed to advocate for freedom first, a consistent, principled basis for everything said, advocacy positions, etc. Now, you have to suddenly get religion, because EVERYONE's freedom is at stake, even our competition's,. Rather than advocate for that, WISPA now has a history just as compromised as ATT's and every lobbyist's, because it stood for little more than trying to bend the rules to favor US instead of THEM. Expediently, we've discovered that open markets mean open to competition, as well, something not advocated by WISPA before. I said in 2009 that there were people headed for Congress, a sea change coming, and that WISPA needed to get politically allied with the pro freedom crowd. They were called radicals and idiots on this list instead. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you to watch closely what we inform membership, prepare to be involved because unless you are content with the current frequencies and rules we are under you will directly be affected by this Congressional action. If we give in to these irrational rules don't think Congress or the legacy characters will stop there, if they sell the revenue model successfully they could go after existing frequencies too. WISPA will be releasing talking points next week so that you can help us by making appointments with your Congressperson while they are in district during the month of August. We really need to educate them that this path is bad for America and their constituents. If you need constant updates please join the Legislative
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
- the very thinking we must now defeat. I have said we all stand on freedom, or fall together, and for this I have been branded as a radical, idiot, moron, right wing extremist, and so on - as such principles are, according to the self proclaimed 'wise men' of the group, outdated and unworkable. Until we need them, of course. Even the tortured and twisted explanation below is still trying to defend the big government crapola, and by now, it better be as clear and obvious to you, as a just hammered thumbnail, that NOTHING ELSE MATTERS IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE IN BUSINESS. I was at founding of WISPA. I was there within a week or two of the interest list being formed, and I joined and donated money, until previous people of WISPA were found by me to be advocating FCC mandates on us. At which I resigned and will not rejoin until my money is no longer at risk of being used against our basic and fundamental freedoms. YEARS have been sqandered, because WISPA failed to advocate for freedom first, a consistent, principled basis for everything said, advocacy positions, etc. Now, you have to suddenly get religion, because EVERYONE's freedom is at stake, even our competition's,. Rather than advocate for that, WISPA now has a history just as compromised as ATT's and every lobbyist's, because it stood for little more than trying to bend the rules to favor US instead of THEM. Expediently, we've discovered that open markets mean open to competition, as well, something not advocated by WISPA before. I said in 2009 that there were people headed for Congress, a sea change coming, and that WISPA needed to get politically allied with the pro freedom crowd. They were called radicals and idiots on this list instead. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably understandable plan of action I guarantee you, you will have many here who would be willing to listen and follow your lead... But if you continue expressing yourself in the convoluted manner, as in your email belowthen there is a very high probability that these will continue to be chalked off as tirades and rants. :) Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 tel:509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net mailto:fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org mailto:wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
At 7/16/2011 09:41 PM, Scott Reed wrote: I also noticed that the breakup of Ma Bell degraded service in many areas. A monopoly by market demand is not necessarily bad. A monopoly by regulation is bad. Well, not necessarily. Ma Bell's service was never consistent before the breakup, but their P.R. was good. The monopoly occurred naturally from the time the Bell patents expired (1893) until the last competitors were gone in the 1930s. There were CLECs galore (called independents at the time, but not the geographic-monopoly independents of later years) in the 1893-1920 era. Bell bought Pupin's patent on the loading coil in the 1890s, which gave them a monopoly on long distance (10 miles or so), but local service was competitive in many places. Independents pioneered dial; Bell was all-manual until the 1920s. However, the economics of natural monopoly are real. The larger market share means a lower unit cost, so the big guy almost always wins. So by 1934, when the Communications Act was passed, the monopoly already existed; FCC and state rules simply locked it in place (made it de jure). The idea of TA96 was to de-monopolize. Since the natural monopoly still exists, unbundling is a way to open the market, but the 2001 FCC turned against it and the current one remains opposed, law notwithstanding. The public Internet only exists because the FCC in 1966 started the Computer Inquiries, which created a bright line distinction between carriage (basic service) and content (enhanced service), especially in 1980's Computer II. The ILECs hated that. The FCC also rammed sharing and resale down their throats around 1976 -- before that, you couldn't lease a line between two companies unless one of them was a licensed common carrier (e.g., Western Union, one of Ma Bell's few authorized wholesale resellers). How could you have an ISP without those rules? However, in 2005 the FCC revoked the Computer Inquiry rules, in response to a Verizon request, which is what led to the whole Network Neutrality kerfuffle. The no regulation approach would most likely involve granting ILECs full property rights on their networks, so they would have unregulated monopolies. Who does that benefit? It's a banana republic situation. Every civilized country regulates its monopolies or keeps them under public ownership. Of course property rights are themselves an artificial legal construct, so I suppose a Somali-level approach would be that you could string wires, but you'd need to hire warlords to guard them, and could steal whatever your warlords were able to rassle from competitors. Ironically, Somalia does have a competitive mobile phone sector, since there is no government to regulate it and the warlord armies do guard their towers, but no wireline sector to speak of. WISPs are less dependent on wireline rules than wireline ISPs, who are largely hurting due to malevolent FCC policies. But they still depend on spectrum regulatory policies. which the FCC makes consistent with the law. And many depend on wireline backhaul, where regulation is the only thing that keeps the monopolies from gouging worse than they do. (I've got an article in the works about how the real digital divide is the way the ILECs have kept the fiber dividend -- the low per-bit cost of capacity on fiber -- away from their monopoly ratepayers, even though it operates in competitive markets. On 7/16/2011 9:25 PM, Faisal Imtiaz wrote: Well...again you have to go further back in history...before telecom regulation ..it was a Ma Bell monopoly ..and without regulation...there is a very good chance that it will again become a Ma Bell monopoly or maybe a duopoly... Let's not forget that... Faisal On Jul 16, 2011, at 9:03 PM, RickG mailto:rgunder...@gmail.comrgunder...@gmail.com wrote: it is Regulation (1996 Telecom Act) that allowed us (ISP's) to be able to go into the business of providing internet access and other communication services With all due respect, it's exactly the mindset that government allows us to be in business that IS the problem. Telecom Act or no, regulation or no, there should be no question that we are allowed to make a living the way we want to regardless. -- Fred Goldsteink1io fgoldstein at ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ +1 617 795 2701 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
.. that is as partisan as one can get I agree with your 'Principle Numero Uno', but you are harking at the wrong organization.. it is not in WISPA's charter or mission, maybe should be a member of the SBA association, or FISPA or COMPTEL ... but then again you will have to get your head straight about how the US Gov. has operated for the last 200 years WISPA's mission has been to address issues related to Wireless, (not business, not telephone service, not hosted services, etc etc)... While I understand your frustration with the Gov., and do agree with some of your points, but what you keep putting forward on the WISPA forums is more like 'Don Quixote Tilting at the windmills Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet Telecom On 7/16/2011 12:59 AM, MDK wrote: A plan of action? If I said this is what WISPA should do and laid it out in detail, all you'd do is say who are you? Why should we hacve to do what you say? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiazfai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
On 7/15/2011 9:03 AM, Forbes Mercy wrote: Forbes Mercy WISPA VP/Legislative Chair Just to give you an idea of what you're up against, the #1 provider of lobbying money and political donations to congress is the healthcare industry. They are followed by the telecom industry. --Curtis Maurand Biddeford, ME 04005 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
And that's not regulation, that's bribery and corruption! Maybe we need to regulate the regualtors?!?! On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 11:20 PM, Curtis Maurand cmaur...@xyonet.comwrote: On 7/15/2011 9:03 AM, Forbes Mercy wrote: Forbes Mercy WISPA VP/Legislative Chair Just to give you an idea of what you're up against, the #1 provider of lobbying money and political donations to congress is the healthcare industry. They are followed by the telecom industry. --Curtis Maurand Biddeford, ME 04005 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -RickG WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
[WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you to watch closely what we inform membership, prepare to be involved because unless you are content with the current frequencies and rules we are under you will directly be affected by this Congressional action. If we give in to these irrational rules don't think Congress or the legacy characters will stop there, if they sell the revenue model successfully they could go after existing frequencies too. WISPA will be releasing talking points next week so that you can help us by making appointments with your Congressperson while they are in district during the month of August. We really need to educate them that this path is bad for America and their constituents. If you need constant updates please join the Legislative Committee as we will be posting most of the Legislative work in that venue. Thank you for your time and we appreciate you realizing the huge task we have ahead of us. Forbes Mercy WISPA VP/Legislative Chair WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
It's great to rail against Congress but everyone should understand that, whether we agree with them or not, this IS ultimately their responsibility. Agencies such as the FCC have often taken somewhat vague (often intentionally vague) legislation and taken actions/made rules far beyond what the signers of the law intended. Net Neutrality is just one example of this. Personally, I'd rather that ELECTED bodies make these decisions, rather than some politically appointed board. Elected officials MUST respond to their voters. Appointed board members only have to keep those who appointed them happy. Most Congressmen/women have no idea that this discussion is even taking place (other than those on the committee, and perhaps some of the leadership). If they had heard of it, they likely had no idea what it meant. 435 + 100 people (mostly lawyers) cannot be expected to understand every single technical aspect of this sort of legislation. That's why WISPA, its members and friends, equipment manufacturers, and probably most importantly YOUR CUSTOMERS must inform them. I'm sure it's forthcoming, but a list of all the Congress members on the relevant committees with their contact info would be most helpful. That and the official WISPA position (in plain language) will allow us to leverage all of our assets to go after this wrong-headed legislation. Once we are armed with this information, every member should contact their Congressman...remember, many of them were just elected in 2010 for the first time. Their heads are still spinning, and they are also more likely to be responsive than some 40 year vet. Regards, Jeff ImageStream Sales Manager 800-813-5123 x106 -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Forbes Mercy Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 9:04 AM To: memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Might I suggest speaking with Dave Wenhold? He has done WONDERS for another small association with similar needs, ATSI ( www.atsi.org ) His contact info is: Dave Wenhold, CAE, PLC Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies 10623 Jones Street Suite 101-A Fairfax, VA 22030 P: (703) 927-1453 F: (703) 935-2266 E: dwenh...@mwcapitol.com W: www.mwcapitol.com I've taken the liberty of CC'ing him with this note Aaron D. Osgood Streamline Solutions L.L.C P.O. Box 6115 Falmouth, ME 04105 TEL: 207-781-5561 MOBILE: 207-831-5829 ICQ: 206889374 GVoice: 207.518.8455 GTalk: aaron.osgood aosg...@streamline-solutions.net http://www.streamline-solutions.net Introducing Efficiency to Business since 1986. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Forbes Mercy Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 9:04 AM To: memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you to watch closely what we inform membership, prepare to be involved because unless you are content with the current frequencies and rules we are under you will directly be affected by this Congressional action. If we give in to these irrational rules don't think Congress or the legacy characters will stop there, if they sell the revenue model successfully they could go after existing frequencies too. WISPA will be releasing talking points next week so that you can help us by making appointments with your Congressperson while
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
It should be noted that the today that we face is not neceesarilly an indication of a bad thing. It was just a fork in the road, and the big telco lobbiests reached the fork shortly before us. What we have here is a chance to make a meaningful permanent change on spectrum policy. A fast track that doesn;t come along often. Congress has that power. But with every opportunity there also comes risk attached, and the risk is great if we are not at the top of our game. This is NOT the time to be weak, it is the time that demands strength and persistence. This is where we say, we dont give up and aren't willing to go away, and we simply aren't going to let congress try to take our innovative drive away. And where we have the courage and responsibilty to call it like we see it, and not accept when the FCC does wrong, we also have the equal obligation to defend our FCC that we have intemently interacted with over the years. When I testified on NetNEutrality for the republicans, ATT claimed to be for the NetNeutrality rules. The republicans, dragged out the truth that ATT did NOT like the rules, they just agreed that they were less harmful than the rules could have been, and they were willing to reduce risk, and except less harmful rules. The republicans were quick to use that to there advantage and argue that settling for less harmful should not be adequate testimony to contitute being in favor of, and that we should have rules that benefit us, not just that are less harmful, if we are to have successful broadband policy. I see no reason we cant use that same arguement against the House committee. Right now, the majority bill is horrid. So we show more support for the minority companion bill that is less harmful. Allthough we can agree and testify that the new minority bill is less harmful and preverable than the other, we can not loose focus that both bills are harmful in some capacity. We need to tell congress what we honestly really think, and we need a stronger stance. A very very relevent point is that there has been an eight year public open process on whitespace where 3 administrations had been involved ans all concluded the value of unlicensed and allocation of Whitespace to unlicensed in significant capacity. For congress to undermine that would be undermining public opinion. There is proof, 8 years of FCC records showing that the FCC's decission represented the public interests. Congresss has an obligation to represent the public interest. I would argue that the only evidence that we need to support our claim is submit FCC historical record as evidence. In my opinion, ignoring that evidence in favor of big money lobbyiest, or to assist with poor federal budgeting, would be corruption. The bills are scary, but that does not mean we have to let them pass. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: Forbes Mercy forbes.me...@wabroadband.com To: memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 9:03 AM Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
I hope everyone on the List reads this post Tom! You nailed it. Just because the minority bill does less damage, doesn't mean that we should support it! Regards, Jeff ImageStream Sales Manager 800-813-5123 x106 -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Tom DeReggi Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 11:07 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire It should be noted that the today that we face is not neceesarilly an indication of a bad thing. It was just a fork in the road, and the big telco lobbiests reached the fork shortly before us. What we have here is a chance to make a meaningful permanent change on spectrum policy. A fast track that doesn;t come along often. Congress has that power. But with every opportunity there also comes risk attached, and the risk is great if we are not at the top of our game. This is NOT the time to be weak, it is the time that demands strength and persistence. This is where we say, we dont give up and aren't willing to go away, and we simply aren't going to let congress try to take our innovative drive away. And where we have the courage and responsibilty to call it like we see it, and not accept when the FCC does wrong, we also have the equal obligation to defend our FCC that we have intemently interacted with over the years. When I testified on NetNEutrality for the republicans, ATT claimed to be for the NetNeutrality rules. The republicans, dragged out the truth that ATT did NOT like the rules, they just agreed that they were less harmful than the rules could have been, and they were willing to reduce risk, and except less harmful rules. The republicans were quick to use that to there advantage and argue that settling for less harmful should not be adequate testimony to contitute being in favor of, and that we should have rules that benefit us, not just that are less harmful, if we are to have successful broadband policy. I see no reason we cant use that same arguement against the House committee. Right now, the majority bill is horrid. So we show more support for the minority companion bill that is less harmful. Allthough we can agree and testify that the new minority bill is less harmful and preverable than the other, we can not loose focus that both bills are harmful in some capacity. We need to tell congress what we honestly really think, and we need a stronger stance. A very very relevent point is that there has been an eight year public open process on whitespace where 3 administrations had been involved ans all concluded the value of unlicensed and allocation of Whitespace to unlicensed in significant capacity. For congress to undermine that would be undermining public opinion. There is proof, 8 years of FCC records showing that the FCC's decission represented the public interests. Congresss has an obligation to represent the public interest. I would argue that the only evidence that we need to support our claim is submit FCC historical record as evidence. In my opinion, ignoring that evidence in favor of big money lobbyiest, or to assist with poor federal budgeting, would be corruption. The bills are scary, but that does not mean we have to let them pass. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: Forbes Mercy forbes.me...@wabroadband.com To: memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 9:03 AM Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercy forbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To: memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you to watch closely what we inform membership, prepare to be involved because unless you are content with the current frequencies and rules we are under you will directly be affected by this Congressional action. If we give in to these irrational rules don't think Congress or the legacy characters will stop there, if they sell the revenue model successfully they could go after existing frequencies too. WISPA will be releasing talking points next week so that you can help us by making appointments with your Congressperson while they are in district during the month of August. We really need to educate them that this path is bad for America and their constituents. If you need constant updates please join the Legislative Committee as we will be posting most of the Legislative work in that venue. Thank you for your time and we appreciate you realizing the huge task we have ahead of us. Forbes Mercy WISPA VP/Legislative Chair WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
competition's,. Rather than advocate for that, WISPA now has a history just as compromised as ATT's and every lobbyist's, because it stood for little more than trying to bend the rules to favor US instead of THEM. Expediently, we've discovered that open markets mean open to competition, as well, something not advocated by WISPA before. I said in 2009 that there were people headed for Congress, a sea change coming, and that WISPA needed to get politically allied with the pro freedom crowd. They were called radicals and idiots on this list instead. If you have even ONCE advocated for big government intervention... For money your way, for regulation to favor you instead of them, for a chance to get your hands on the subsidies, or IN ANY WAY supported the notion of government intervention in the markets YOU are directly to blame for the mess we're facing. YOU failed to stand for the ONE thing that matters, freedom. I sure hope we win this fight. When I started posting about defending your right to be in business several years ago, it was because I had envisioned this happening, it was written on the wall, in big letters. I told you so. Are you going to get serious, or this just going to be just more arguments of convenience? ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Forbes Mercyforbes.me...@wabroadband.com Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 6:03 AM To:memb...@wispa.org; WISPA General Listwireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire TO WISP's I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where they already give millions in donations, they knew they had one big leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of ATT and Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of any future frequencies. Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that can help us with this new front we have to fight on. Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
A plan of action? If I said this is what WISPA should do and laid it out in detail, all you'd do is say who are you? Why should we hacve to do what you say? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us.The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all of the powers to be part...and I beg to differ when you start blaming ..'this administration'. I personally have been watching and following the FCC stuff, on sliding slopes, for the last 12 years..that according to my calculations has been multiple administrations.) You clear your head, and try to articulate your position in a non-partisan manner, which can be understood by the general public, and put forward a reasonably
Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire
Mark,I think everyone knows you to be a very smart man.What do you suggest as a specific plan of action in the current situation.I think this is the best route to convey your message,with the impact you desire. Jason --- On Sat, 7/16/11, MDK rea...@muddyfrogwater.us wrote: From: MDK rea...@muddyfrogwater.us Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Date: Saturday, July 16, 2011, 12:59 AM A plan of action? If I said this is what WISPA should do and laid it out in detail, all you'd do is say who are you? Why should we hacve to do what you say? Frankly, I have no idea why you're having difficulty. You see, when you have proper business principles as your guiding mechanism, what you should do is crystal clear. Nobody needs to write out a plan of action, it becomes self evident - you always advocate FOR the proper and best thing. And, after being consistent, year after year, and when stuff like this comes up, which becomes so blatantly obviously a result of failure to follow true principle, again, nothing is obscure or difficult. Additionally, I said absolutely NOTHING partisan. Not even ideological. It's simple straightforward business principles. Principle Numero Uno is have the freedom to be in business, and there is nothing convoluted or difficult about that. You seem to be interested in mere expediency. That's what's gotten us to this crisis point, the idea of managing the favoritism, the cronyism, etc, to favor you, or at least not hurt you too much. That's what's BEEN going on. Had we (WISPA) been looking for and actively seeking allies who would with us, say with many voices, but one message - hands off, and be a steward of what's entrusted to you, I think the landscape would look different. The word steward is loaded. It means one entrusted to manage things for the benefit OF THE OWNER, that's us. The FCC and Congress are managing for the benefit of the federal treasury and the donations to campaigns - which is the polar opposite of managed for the good of the people. In the previous post, I wrote an analogy, one where the city effectively puts every service and business up for licensure at auction. It takes no imagination at all to see that the city coffers and the winning bidder are the beneficiaries and the people are the losers. Spectrum is a public or national resource held in trust by the federal government. Auctions to the highest bidder do not benefit anyone but the monopoly holder and the treasury, by creating monopolies or very limited competition. Again, we as consumers and businessmen are the losers. Imagine if there were enough spectrum delegated so that if us WISP's wanted to be mobile broadband providers we could, as well as cellular, or even video / audio broadcasters. Instead, such services have been delegated a minute slice of available spectrum, keeping up the price of the auctions - and the number of competitors down. Why? It is in the interest of politicians to separate us from our money. But their REAL job is to defend us keeping it. There are NOW myriad political allies to spread this message, to change the discussion from whom to screw out of lots of money to what is the best policy for the people and keep competition alive? And, that's the message that is NOT being advocated by WISPA, and it should be. You seem to think that the answer is to find the right pol to influence and the right committee members to lobby and the right allies to obstruct X or advance Y, but those are expediency, not principle. They should be TACTICS to a principled purpose, one that will attract others, on the basis of its soundness and validity. And lastly, about the FCC, the last administration's appointees were advocates for free markets and for competition and deregulation. Not particularly effective ones, but at least they were not our enemy. The current administration's people at the FCC are IN NO WAY our friend, for any way, manner, or purpose, and everything they want is bad for us and the country. STop talking political party talking points, and get some reality. ++ Neofast, Inc, Making internet easy 541-969-8200 509-386-4589 ++ -- From: Faisal Imtiaz fai...@snappydsl.net Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 8:01 PM To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Subject: Re: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire Errr... and your point is ? Ok, I am a nobody... I have seen / read your emails, not once can I say I have been able to pick out a proposed specific, action or a plan of action from you My friend you and I can agree or dis-agree on concepts all day long... but the point still remains ... I for myself still am not able to ascertain what exactly is it that you have been proposing ? ( I understand the anger at all
