This is an excerpt from a comment filed by a state representative from Kansas:
"As a state policy-maker attempting to develop incentives that will induce broadband providers (particularly the larger DSL and cable companies) to use multiple technologies to reach beyond city limits, FCC data providing greater specificity about which potential customers are adversely impacted by the digital divide and left without a viable option for service would be invaluable." That ought to turn your stomach into knots. Let me interpret it... "We want detailed data, so we can help,cajole, coerce, or bribe the big guys into universal coverage". This is not a question of the FCC determining how broadband is being deployed. This is a matter of us being required to provide the data so that public money can be used to benefit the politically connected. My comments to the FCC... As a small businessman, one of the ways that we exist, is by being flexible and by offering services in an ad-hoc basis that larger, inflexible entities don't. Often, small businesses are purely based upon market need. Individuals find a need and fill it. And we do so in our own town, or neighborhood, or in the areas near where we live. One of the most critical efforts that small business people undertake, is to determine if there's a large enough market for what they want to do. Often, little funding is available for this, and they substitute days, weeks, or even months of time and personal effort instead of hiring research companies or marketing consultants, or buying the data outright. In the case of a wireless ISP, for instance, one of the most critical elements for success, is to map out an area, and then begin "building out" a network. Many such WISP's are one or two man operations, and start with minimal capital, usually enough to get started and operate in a limited area for a short period of time. Then, funding from operations then provides capital for expansion and improvement of infrastructure. During this phase of the life of a WISP, the financial situation is generally very fragile, and a loss of markets to move into will generally cause business failure. If WISP's are required to do even MORE work, such as finding census borders and maintaining massive and detailed databases of location etc, and the purpose of that work is to give free assistance to competitors to show them where to take your markets away from you, this effort is 100% counterproductive. Not only do the results hurt you, but the time it takes away from a small businessman often comes at the expense of operations, expansion, or even quality of service. Perhaps people who sit behind desks in Washington DC don't care about anything but press releases where they get to praise themselves and get lauded on TV, but for those of us who risk our life's savings and often years of our lives building a business by bootstrap have a LOT more at stake than a transitory and soon forgotten political posture by some appointed or hired public employee. So, as a small businessman, I cannot state how incredibly wrong ALL of this is, and that IN NO WAY should the FCC be in the business of deliberating wasting the time, money, and resources of small business people solely for the purpose of harming their future. So, in closing, I state for the record, there is no good aspect the collection of detailed information. It is not and has never been the business of Congress or the FCC to provide broadband. That's being done by thousands of hard working people who have risked everything they have to try to make it happen. It seems worse than Machiavellian, then, for the FCC to demand that these people then waste thier time, money, and energy, in an effort where the only result possible, is to harm them. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <insert witty tagline here> ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 9:31 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Form 477 NPRM Comments Due > I'm going to ask that we oppose this in its entirety, due to it giving > away > information we really don't need given away. > > Whatever your take... please file. ... something. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
