Chadd,
I would not let the sometimes intense nature of the certification
discussions put you off. This is an issue with financial, emotional, and
legal sides. WISP owner/operators are an intelligent bunch of
individuals who have strong personalities and a need to "cut to the
chase" in making business decisions. The need to hash out issues and to
make quick and hopefully correct business decisions sometimes gives an
appearance of being overly contentious but through all the discussions,
useful and necessary business decisions actually do get made. IMHO, this
contention is, for the most part, normal in any deliberative,
decision-making process. I think you will find that a decision to join
WISPA will be a decision that you will be glad you made and one that
will pay you dividends.
Now to answer your question about where WISPA is on the "certification
project". I can't officially speak for WISPA but so far I haven't seen
any strong signs that WISPA is going to directly pay for the
certification of equipment. My perception is that WISPA would like to
help facilitate the certification process for WISPs who wish to band
together to minimize their certification costs by identifying common
equipment combinations and sharing the cost of getting those common
combinations certified. WISPA set up a members-only Certification email
list about five weeks ago to help provide certification information and
coordination.
Personally, I believe that WISPs should use certified equipment. I've
been in this industry for 15 years now and I've worked for around 2000
license-free broadband wireless network deployment organizations, most
of them WISPs. The overwhelming majority of these people want to deploy
networks that 1) work and 2) are legal. Deploying a wireless network
requires investing time, energy, money, hope and reputation. My feeling
is that anyone who invests the time, energy, money, hope and reputation
to design and deploy a legal network deserves to enjoy the satisfaction
and often, the financial rewards that the network can bring them. It
doesn't seem fair to me that someone could invest their time, energy,
money, hope and reputation to build a network that meets the "spirit" of
the law (operates cleanly within the legal power limits) but does not
meet the "letter" of the law (uses equipment that doesn't have FCC
certification) and then have to shut that network down. This shutdown
can happen for several reasons.
1. A competitor complains (rightly or wrongly) to the FCC that you are
operating outside of the FCC rules. The FCC inspects your equipment,
sees that it is not certified, fines you a large amount of money and
orders you to replace your equipment with certified equipment or shut down.
2. A competitor operates outside of the FCC rules themselves, for
example, using too much power and trashing the band for you. You
complain to the FCC. Before inspecting the other operator, the FCC
inspects your equipment and finds that it is not certified. They fine
you as in example 1, above. They may or may not go on to inspect the
operator that you complained about.
I'm sure you can think of other interference-related examples of your own.
My point is that a WISP who follows the law deserves to stay on the air
and reap the benefits of their time, energy, money, hope, and reputation
investment. Using certified equipment seems the best way to maximize
their chances of enjoying the benefits that are due them.
On WISPA's Certification list we have published a certification FAQ and
also published a "Common Data Format" to identify common WISP operator
needs to allow WISPs with similar needs to get together. Action on the
list is fairly slow so far. There are an average of maybe 7 or 8 posts
per week. Many posters have technical questions about the legality of
this or that equipment combination. So far we have about four operators
who want to use Mikrotik OS on Mikrotik motherboards and about three
operators who want to use Star OS on WAR motherboards.
I would urge you to join WISPA and then to join the Certification list.
You'll be able to add your needs as well as to coordinate with others to
hopefully reduce your certification costs.
jack
Chadd Thompson wrote:
I kind of thought the same thing, but thought he may be poking fun
at him or something.
I have been planning on joining WISPA this year once I can scrape up
the $$ to do it but with the recent bashing of certified/non-certified
solutions I am not sure it is where I want to spend my money.
I have a mixed network of certified and non-certified equipment as
does everyone operating in our area. One of the draws for me to join WISPA
was the recent discussion of WISPA heading up a program to try to get some
of the more common non-certified solutions certified. I have looked into
getting my own equipment certified but if this is something that WISPA is
going to do I would definitely rather spend my money to support WISPA in its
efforts. Does anyone know where WISPA is at on this project and if it is
moving forward?
Thanks,
Chadd
(original stuff snipped)
--
Jack Unger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.
FCC License # PG-12-25133
Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993
Author of the WISP Handbook - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs"
True Vendor-Neutral Wireless Consulting-Training-Troubleshooting
FCC Part 15 Certification Assistance for Wireless Service Providers
Phone (VoIP Over Broadband Wireless) 818-227-4220 www.ask-wi.com
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