On Oct 9, 2009, at 9:18 PM, Marlon K. Schafer wrote:

> I didn't apply for two main reasons.
>
> 1: they want the whole company and don't tell you when (if ever)  
> you'll get
> it back.

You can't sell the company without approval for 10 years. The general  
terms of that approval were that you couldn't be asking for so little  
for the company that it resulted in a windfall for the buyer and the  
buyer had to maintain the terms of the contract you sign with the  
government to get the money.

It isn't unreasonable. The final terms of this requirement are worked  
out in the contract you negotiate once you're "awarded" the funds (you  
don't actually get anything just because you won the award...you have  
to sign a mutual contract first).

> 2: My areas are already covered better than what's allowed under the  
> grants.
> We've done a good job in the past and our reward is government funded
> potential competition, gotta love that one.

Yeah, having government funded competition sucks. So does having  
competition that is cross-subsidized by phone service revenues. Or  
television revenues. Or investors that don't know what they are doing.

In the end there isn't anything really special about the funding  
coming from the Feds versus many other sources we have to compete  
around. It hurts the same either way.

> Oh yeah,
> 3: If you take Obama money you are required to wholesale access to the
> network at fair and reasonable rates.

You're said this before and you've been told before this is not the  
case.

You are required to support Interconnection at reasonable rates on the  
part of the network you built with government funds. For a small  
provider that's an almost completely meaningless requirement.

For large multi-region buildouts, that's got some meaning.

You were NOT, however, required to support wholesale. That's a bonus.

>  Anyone know what that really means?
> Me neither.  I figure if someone comes here I'll just make them sell  
> to me
> at good rates and I'll not have to deal with the grant hassles.

You can interconnect with their network. If they are small it  
presumably means you set up a direction connection with them so that  
your traffic goes directly to them and vice versa without needing to  
transit to the outside world.

Interconnection wasn't defined really well in the NOFA however. It  
could also mean another provider could ask to use your network to  
reach the outside world. However, you get to negotiate for that access  
on reasonable terms, which means you could make a profit on whatever  
it is you provide them. Unless you agreed to arbitration (an option in  
the application), you couldn't be forced to do it really (since it'd  
be easy enough to set unworkable terms). A starting point for the  
negotiation would probably have been "what would access cost from the  
big guys" to your location? since that's presumably a reasonable place  
to be price wise.

Chuck


> marlon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tim Sylvester" <[email protected]>
> To: "'WISPA General List'" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:42 AM
> Subject: Re: [WISPA] Barriers to WISP growth
>
>
>>> Stimulus: I don't believe in it and did not apply.
>>
>> I want to understand people's opposition to the Broadband Stimulus
>> programs.
>>
>>
>> Rick and other people opposed to the stimulus, can you expand on  
>> why you
>> don't believe in the Stimulus and why you didn't apply? Are there  
>> things
>> you
>> think the government - FCC, congress, etc. - could do to help ISPs  
>> and
>> expanding broadband?
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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--------------
Chuck Bartosch
Clarity Connect, Inc.
200 Pleasant Grove Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 257-8268

"When the stars threw down their spears,
and water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile, His work to see?
Did He who made the Lamb make thee?"

 From William Blake's Tiger!, Tiger!





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