As many of you know I participated on a panel last week with 2 FCC staffers. Here is the text of an email I just sent to them:
Paul and John; I just reviewed the latest form 477 report. I am dismayed by the results for the fixed wireless industry. I cannot believe, and I am sure you don't either that there was a 39.6% decline in subscribers over 6 months when there were 112 more operators reporting. The only conclusion I can draw is that fixed wireless operators who reported in the past using the zip code method, did not file when they were required to report by census tract. Many of those operators must have had a large customer base. As I mentioned on the panel, I have assisted some WISP's file their 477 reports by mapping their customer databases and assigning the proper tract data to each record. In talking with most of them, it became apparent that the FCC did not provide an adequate tool to help those people file. While it is possible to look up a single address and get the tract data, there were no provisions to allow for a bulk upload and query to assign this information. Many of the 20 or so WISP's I helped had databases of 1,200 to 1,400 records. That would be a very time consuming process to do one at a time. Most small WISP's do not have the GIS skills or tools to deal with this issue that major carriers already have on staff. Zip codes were easy because it was already part of the information they had on hand. If possible there should be a tool to address this issue which should increase the reporting numbers from those who had participated in the past. Thank You, Brian Webster 214 Eggleston Hill Rd. Cooperstown, NY 13326 (607) 643-4055 Office (607) 435-3988 Mobile (208) 692-1898 Fax Skype: Radiowebst www.wirelessmapping.com -----Original Message----- From: motor...@afmug.com [mailto:motor...@afmug.com]on Behalf Of Peter Kranz Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 1:50 PM To: motor...@afmug.com Subject: RE: [Motorola II] WISP's are killing themselves!!!! - New FCC form 477 report is out, not looking good for Fixed Wireless Maybe they can keep making this report harder and harder to fill out so we all just stop doing it.. That report is a huge waste of my staffs time. And based on the underlying edits and validations you can tell their system computes the census tracks internally to verify it matches the one you provide. The system should accept data in a way that is simple for a WISP to provide and derive the census tracks, etc.. maybe then more people would provide the data. Peter Kranz Founder/CEO - UnwiredLtd www.UnwiredLtd.com Desk: 510-868-1614 x100 Mobile: 510-207-0000 pkr...@unwiredltd.com From: motor...@afmug.com [mailto:motor...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 10:41 AM To: motor...@afmug.com Subject: Re: [Motorola II] WISP's are killing themselves!!!! - New FCC form 477 report is out, not looking good for Fixed Wireless Brian, Could you find a list of the fixed wireless companies so we can all verify we are on the list? From: Brian Webster Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 11:36 AM To: WISPA List ; memb...@wispa. org ; WISPA Board ; Motorla List Beehive Subject: [Motorola II] WISP's are killing themselves!!!! - New FCC form 477 report is out, not looking good for Fixed Wireless The latest FCC report on form 477 broadband data is out (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296239A1.pdf). While I don't see a whole lot of useful data in it, I do see where WISP's are killing themselves and the industry, why? a.. In the periods prior to the December 2008 report, fixed wireless has shown a steady increase in subscribers. The last reporting period the number of subscribers dropped from 808,000 to 488,000!!! That's a 39.6% drop in the actual data that had been previously reported. Know I know that most of the problem is the fact they now require census tract reporting rather than zip codes, but dropping like this does not help the industry as a whole. b.. Because of the low number of reported subscribers, the reporting by technology portions of the report does not even earn fixed wireless a spot on the charts in it's own category. It's lumped in with the 1.4% total of all other technologies compared to the rest of the broadband industry. Hell Satellite has their own category with .9%. c.. The total number of fixed wireless providers reporting is 617. That means there are a huge number of WISP's not filing form 477 and those that didn't report must have a large number of subscribers. The previous period where fixed wireless had 808,000 subscribers had only 505 WISP's report! Matt Larsen and the WISP directory have around 1,800 WISP's registered. I've heard other estimates between 2,000 and over 4,000. Only 617 fixed wireless operators reporting is not helping the cause at all. d.. The National broadband plan is being formulated as we speak, looking at those statistics it appears the WISP industry is in a serious decline and that as a total percentage of broadband provided to consumers nationally, they make no significant difference. If you were a government policy maker, would you even pay attention to WISP's. I certainly would not. They have to make decisions based on data and that benefit the majority of the country. WISP's have thumbed their noses at providing this data for years. I think it is really going to bite them in the butt now. Fiber to the home is coming liking it or not. USF reform is coming like it or not. USF reform is going to subsidize broadband to the very markets wireless serves more economically today. Removing that advantage is going to put the WISP industry in serious trouble. The manufacturers are killing themselves as well. In their quest to just sell radios, they have missed the importance of keeping the industry healthy. If the WISP's cannot compete and/or show that they are a significant option to the overall broadband infrastructure in the US, how will they continue to sell product. If anyone knows the true number of WISP's out there it is the manufacturers. They should be leading the charge with groups like WISPA to make sure ALL WISP's stand up and get counted. How hard would it be to stuff each shipment with educational material on the importance of filing form 477? The current FCC is very open minded but the results of this type of report force them to make decisions that benefit the most people. 488,000 is a very small portion of over 129 million homes. All I can say is ouch........ Thank You, Brian Webster -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/