Hi John. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <insert witty tagline here>
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Scrivner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 10:18 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] FCC approves new method for tracking broadband's reach >I usually bite my tongue when I see people who have a holy war > mentality against any government involvement in industry. This is > usually because I tend to agree in keeping a light touch in > regulation. I have to speak up though when I am being lumped into a > category of "lobotomized sheep". That is going too far. You're the arbiter of the "what's reasonable"? > > I am going to tell you what is going to happen to you if you do not > spend a little time learning how to tell the FCC who and where you are > serving broadband. I am also going to tell you why they are asking. If > you do not like my answers then feel free to debate them. Please > refrain from referring to me or WISPA as "lobotomized sheep". I will > not take it well if you use such derogatory terms to paint a picture > of me and my organization. I didn't know you owned WISPA. It's not "yours". When WISPA started, I actually believed you were a man of principle and judgement. I thought it in good hands. I even thought we agreed on fundamental principles about the nation and govenrment and politics. > > Here is what will happen if you ignore the FCC request for information. > > The FCC will do nothing. They will not fine you. They will not hunt > you down. They will also not help you. You will be invisible to the > FCC. Congratulations. You will not be recognized on the federal level > as being part of the industry. All your hard work will count for > nothing in DC. John: It never, ever, ever, EVER will. Nothing I do or you do, all of us collectively do will ever get me or any other person anything more than a little adrenaline "bump" for being in "the halls of power". We can brown-nose and play nice forever, and even if we somehow manage to get some person friendly to our cause... The next personell change wipes it all out. We'll have given, they'll have taken, and NOTHING will have changed except that. We'll still be left with the obligations, and any so-called "good will" will be as transitory as a snowflake in hell. > > The long-term effects of your cloaking will be much more insidious. > Government reports and policy over time will be in part based on the > results of your inaction. When larger telcos ask for tax relief and > subsidies for building out broadband into unserved areas they will > use the fact that your area is NOT served as justification for having > Uncle Sam pay them to build out your area. USF reformation for > broadband funding will be targeted to help others, who report > broadband coverage, to build out your area. The USDA will allow > funding to go to larger broadband companies to build your area since > reports show it is not being served. The big bad government and telcos > will then be out to get you. Why? Because you are invisible and they > are using that against you. Who is at fault when that happens? It will > be a bit like complaining that someone runs over you while you are > dressed in black walking down the middle of the road at night. We can take and embrace EVERY bit of manure and every mandate the FCC or anyone else hands out smiling and pretending to love it and the EXACT same outcome will still occur. > > Now I am going to tell you why they want this information. The FCC > wants this information because they have to measure this. It is a > matter of law. The federal government monitors itself on many levels. > In the FCC's case they are looking at broadband coverage to see if > they are doing their job to make sure that our country has access to > broadband. There is law in place to make them provide this data. The > older reports were criticized by many for not telling the whole story. > This led to them asking for more information. Yes, we're all familiar with the process... at least the public part of it, that got us where we are. > > I look at broadband reporting different than you do. I want more > spectrum. I want protections for the spectrum I use. I want to see us > have the FCC as our friend if we have interference issues. I also know > that they are the stewards of the public spectrum I use. I did not > have to pay billions of dollars to use it. Broadband reporting helps > them to see if the spectrum we have is being used to serve broadband. > If we report customer growth using spectrum then we show the system > works. And we can live with this illusion for how long? Congressional mandate created 3650, if memory serves. Can you tell us, to this date, what all the reporting and accepting mandates without question or objection got us? MORE OF THE SAME. Precisely. Nothing more, nothing less. What's on the horizon that will be a "reward" for all of this? Absolutely NOTHING. The hope of loans or grants from the government? My God! That violates every principle I hold as an American. I do not exchange tit for tat. I call it "corruption", not "a good thing". You mentionedd "debate". John, I've been hearing the same thing for years from you. "We gotta play" to get better treatement. We "played". We got the shaft. Maybe we should start objecting to the shaft? Why don't YOU start telling us what wonderful things are REALLY going to happen, or have happened, in exchange for all the promised "not objecting"? I say that absolutely nothing is coming our way, and that WISPA has done almost NOTHING where it should have done much. If this is "unreasonalbe" and "extreme", then you live in a different world than I live in. Your mind has an entirely different frame of reference from mine. You've said all of this before. I let time go by. Your words have not changed in the slightest, but yet, the "influence" WISP's has caused nothing to happen or not happen in the last few years, as far as I can tell. WISPA COULD have filed several times on several issues, stating that CALEA and reporting were both unreasonalbe and wrong demands on the time and resources of WISP's. But no. Instead, you turned the issue into a way to blackmail memberships out of people to benefit WISPA. Bad enough the FCC shafted us, WISPA turned and did the same. And demanded more money and influence to promote positions I cannot possibly support, sinced I consider it totally against our interests. I left last time stating clearly that if this organization and the people on this list are actually STILL believing what you have put out, then I simply cannot peacefully co-exist. What of it? Do you people STILL believe this tripe? Do you really believe that the endless parade of promising more and more compliance and funding more and more mandates out of our pockets for the benefit of the political career politicians in DC will earn us ANYTHING? If so, what evidence do you have? WISP history says that mandates come and politicians go, but the "benefits" never accrue. Most industries hire lobbyists and even file lawsuits to block mandates, conduct strong worded campaigns against mandates and above all, do their utmost to defend themselves against who they know is NOT exactly a "friend". Why are we "different"? Because a few ordinary people went to DC and got to talk to them and hobnob? We got our moment in the sun already, so to speak. Whatever benefits there might have been, have already accrued. Administration changes are coming and all this will simply be water under the bridge. We'll have given. They'll have gotten. If you REALLY think otherwise... I think you're seriously NOT understanding DC or the nature of regulators. > We cannot change the fact that the federal government has a role in > governing the spectrum we use. They also watch over communications > services in our country. I have seen the government do many stupid > things and I know they are not always good at representing my needs. > In the case of broadband reporting I am not going to take a stand > against it. I think we will likely spend about 8 hours per year > performing the requested reporting. I do not think this is too much > for the government to expect from me in exchange for free use of > spectrum. I think that it is not only excessive, it is absurd to expect me to do anything but serve people with needed services. Further, I think the FCC his horrifyingly incompetent at stewarding the public's spectrum. I have no praise or fancy words for the "job they've done". More like a cynical "Harrrumph". I am not afraid of the government or too weak to ask for > change. I prefer to choose my battles on issues I feel are justified. Ahh, but it is unreasonable to disagree with you. yeah. > Your belief is noted and I understand you would prefer we do not have > to fill the forms out. In my case I feel you are causing our industry > more future harm than good in your position of wishing to sit out the > reporting requests from the FCC. Ahh, yes. The old "you're the enemy" because you hope to get me to leave and not embarrass you when you go to DC next time. Don't worry. I'll have gotten my say in ONE post. And if the prevailing thought is still to mew along with your ideas, so be it. > > I am sure you will ignore the reporting and I am sure the FCC will not > do anything about it. Just do not expect the organization you call > "lobotomized sheep" to save you when federal policy starts leading to > others being funded to build areas you already serve. Somehow, I see you applauding the notion of federal policy and funding building out broadband...especially if you get some of the money. And that's why you and I can hardly have a civil conversation. I consider that to be a betrayal of all of us in business. > Scriv > What, you think that because I dont' believe in socialized medicine, or taxpayer funded (insert favorite "cause" here) that I check my principles at the door and "try to get mine" when it comes to MY business? My apologies to you all, if this steps on your toes in a way that fails to jog you into thinking. I will NEVER take federal money for my business. Or state money. Or even the county or city. I oppose such things on all sorts of grounds and have the evidence to back up why it's bad. I don't want it going to anyone. Anytime. Any place, NOT EVEN ME. And I don't conveniently forget it when it comes to WISP operations. I don't want federal money. I don't want "favors". I want the FCC to behave itself and stop doling favors in return for playing footsie with lobbyists. I want it to be a good steward with the public property it is supposed to regulate. And means not selling it off to fund a greedy Congress, but using it AS IT CAN BEST BE USED TO BENEFIT THE NATION. Which hardly means selling it off to Google or some consortium. I am dismayed that our industry provides NO leadership when it comes to addressing this notion, and have turned into the "I'll shut up if I can get my share of the dole" followers. Yes, you have your choice. But as for me. I am exactly where I have always been. And I will NOT change. And I pray I never ahve the chance to say "I told you so". Show me ONE filing on ONE subject from WISPA where WISPA objects to any mandate or even lobbies against the whole idea of RUS money or USF funds going to anyone. We should be telling them that USF is outdated and should go away. But I see people wanting to get THEIR hands on some. I'm supposed to say I want my taxes reduced and that I want an austere government, to live within its means... Unless it puts money in my bank account? Well hell no. I'll gladly forgoe such things. I just wanted to be DEFENDED FROM the govenrment. Not sold to it. You listening? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
