It's ALWAYS been this way. Back in the 50's when you were taught ideals, rest assured it was the same way (but as a child you weren't aware). Remember that telecommunications had little need for radio back then other than as microwave backhaul ... which never cut a large geographic area due to its directionality by nature. Radio licenses were handed out to commercial business's at modest filing fee because there wasn't perceived to be any large monetary demand. This changed only in the early 1980's as the FCC struggled to find ways to grant licenses for cellular spectrum, which was the first time in history that there had ever been such demand. Yet it still hadn't been discovered how much business's were willing to PAY for licenses until the first round of PCS auctions netted the government $2.3B almost a decade later.
But IMO there's been no recent change in government. We each discover the way it works at a particular age, but I've no reason to believe it acted differently in times gone by. Just reflect back on regulations crafted for oil, railroad, steel, coal, or whatever the largest corporations of the day were 100 years ago. The only change is that wireless was never the target of the largest corporations way, way back when. Even though it was one-way, remember how the corporate interests of the TV broadcasters (Sarnoff) influenced the FCC to "move" the FM broadcast band almost-3/4-of-a-century-ago just as a roadblock to an emerging FM broadcast competition? Imagine getting the FCC to put all early FM broadcasters and manufacturers out of business with a stroke of the pen! I think this was all the way back in the 1930s. Crippled the FM broadcast industry for at least 30 years (until the invention of FM Stereo in the early 1960s). Before I start sounding like Mark, I need to state that I believe government plays an important helpful (even vital) role to promote US industries and provide the best services for the US people. I just think they're doing a bad job in this regard. I fervently believe that regulatory anarchy is the worst thing for us all collectively when it comes to signals that can travel long distances. There's no excuse for lack of regulation which can destroy the utility of our spectrum which can all go the way of CB. There's a terrible need for active FCC watch-dogs to weigh-in to counteract the impact of paid lobbyists. Of course, the major industries have a voice that's orders of magnitude louder. But that's the way it's always been. Rich ----- Original Message ----- From: Jack Unger To: WISPA General List Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:17 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Open Meeting on 700 MHz John, Regarding your comment: "Enabling thousands of new bustling and growing entrepreneurs to build local wireless communication broadband companies is the smartest thing they could do which is why they will not do it." Yes, creating and supporting new entrepreneurs is what government "should" do but our government has become corrupted (there, I did it... I uttered the "C word") by the big money from large, entrenched, politically-connected corporations. By providing large political campaign contributions and gifts (like trips on corporate jets) large corporations now control how new laws are written and how existing laws are enforced. It should be no surprise that new laws are written to benefit large corporations. Back when I was a child (in the 50's) I was taught and I believed that the job of government was to "do the greatest good for the greatest number of people". Today, that's changed. Now, it's my impression that our government writes laws to benefit those who contribute the most money to political parties. In the last few years, there are examples of bills that were actually written directly by large, politically-connected corporations, delivered to Congress, voted on and passed into law. Because laws written today fail to benefit the majority of the people, our real economy is going downhill. Our government prints billions of new dollars each month (millions of dollars each day) but these dollars are not being circulated in our real-world, local-businesses economy. These dollars are circulated on Wall Street. These dollars are circulated between our government and large corporations. These dollars are circulated between foreign central banks in countries outside the U.S. Now that I've framed the problem (political corruption), I have an obligation to do more than just complain. I have an obligation to outline the solution. The solution is to take the money out of politics. Allow all candidates to campaign with an small but equal amount of public money (our money). Remember, the job of politicians is to write the laws that govern our country. By taking the large-corporation money out of politics, politicians will be reminded each day who they are supposed to be working for... they're supposed to be working for "us". "Us" is not large corporations. "Us" is real-world, middle-class, grass-roots, local-entrepreneur, working people. By taking the large-corporation, big-money factor out of politics, government will once again write laws that bring "the greatest good to the greatest number of people". The FCC will then promote policies that truly build, benefit and support local economies. jack John Scrivner wrote: > > > Travis Johnson wrote: > >> John, >> >> This is just my opinion, but I seriously doubt the FCC is just going >> to "give" away 700MHz licenses, even on a per base station basis. > > I never said they should "give" it to us. I said they should have base > station sized auctions. They can include an opening bid amount. They > always do. > >> And the WISP community is not going to spend even $5,000 per license >> if they could. > > I would spend $20K+ per base station license. I am not kidding. I would > do it in a heartbeat because I could make it back in one year alone from > not having to tell people NO when we could not get them signal. > >> The cell companies will be bidding, and once again it will be in the >> millions of dollars per region. > > It is like farm ground. We are the farmers. None of us can farm if we > have to buy a million square acres of ground to farm. It is not fair. It > is exactly the same correlation and the FCC needs to hear it. (And > understand it which is a big stretch for them) > >> >> Honestly, what would you do if you were the FCC? Deal with hundreds or >> thousands of little operators at $5,000 per license, or sell 3 or 4 >> licenses for the entire US for millions of dollars? > > It is NOT about what is easier for them. It is a matter of what is best > for the country. Enabling thousands of new bustling and growing > entrepreneurs to build local wireless communication broadband companies > is the smartest thing they could do which is why they will not do it. > Scriv > >> >> Travis >> Microserv >> >> John Scrivner wrote: >> >>> Apparently there is a meeting scheduled today, April 25, at the FCC >>> over how the 700 MHz band is going to be split up for auction. It >>> amazes me how we can be kept in the dark about these meetings. If >>> anyone can tell me how to get included on announcements of such >>> meetings I need to know about it. This really angers me that we are >>> not there with some representation today. If anyone reads this who is >>> near the DC area please go to this meeting and tell them we need >>> spectrum to be made available on a base station license basis. They >>> need to auction off individual base station licenses or reserve some >>> for a flat fee so all of us can compete. If they do not then hundreds >>> if not thousands of operators who are now serving rural broadband >>> will not be able to compete. This is an anti-competitive problem that >>> the FCC needs to address with this auction. This is a big deal. If we >>> do not get some 700 MHz or similar sub- 1 GHz spectrum it is going to >>> be very bad for us all. >>> Scriv >>> -- 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 -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
