A very good & respectable attitude. I agree with you whole heartedly that
FCC (and justice dept policy) has badly damaged our own wireless and wired
telecommunications industries in this country (which for so long led the
entire planet). That doesn't make them evil ... it just means they've done
a bad job at balancing the needs of the country with the politics &
influence that have dominated the last few decades. I've observed over many
years that the positions advocated with money & influence from major
business's are often not in the interests of the country (or even
themselves!). Like most things it's a fault of leadership, not of the
institutions. We all need to keep our eyes on them as you so appropriately
described. Like everything else in politics, if you don't vote you get the
government you deserve. The same goes with the institutions that influence
our industry ... the industry has to participate! Those that serve wispa
deserve a lot of credit. It's tough to participate as a volunteer beyond
the scope of the work necessary to run your own businesses. Hell, many of
the years I worked for Moto it was my paid full-time job to participate in
whatever industry forum or government committee they saw fit. It's really
tough when it's your own time, expense, & motivation.
Rich
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Unger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Open Meeting on 700 MHz
Rich,
You make a good point. As a child, it was easy for me to understand the
ideals that I was taught but it was harder for me to see and to understand
what was really going on "behind the scenes" - behind the "political
curtain" so to speak.
Now, as an adult, it's become painfully obvious to me how intertwined
politics and business really are. They are so intertwined that they appear
(to me at least) to be destroying both the financial well-being of our
country and the moral leadership that we once believed our country
provided in the world.
I guess I could say that "my eyes have been opened". I now try to watch
the FCC and our government at every level (local, state and federal) to
try to keep them true to the ideals that I was taught were true and that I
still believe they should be upholding.
jack
Rich Comroe wrote:
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
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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
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