The FCC wrote:
we conclude that establishments that acquire broadband Internet access service from a facilities-based provider to enable their patrons or customers to access the Internet from their respective establishments are not considered facilities-based broadband Internet access service providers
Hm.
It'd be one heckuva stretch, but by reading the letter (as opposed to the spirit) of that paragraph, many smaller WISPs would automatically be exempt. I know my office has "acquired broadband Internet access service from a facilities-based provider" (our upstream ISP) and we're enabling our customers to access the Internet from their respective establishments (i.e. our customers pay for Internet at their homes or offices).
By the letter of that paragraph (and, to be fair, I haven't read all the context surrounding it) most any single-homed WISP would be exempt, as they could just say "go talk to our upstream." (I doubt it'd work for multi-homed ISPs, as that would require multiple upstreams to be tapped and somehow synchronized, which is probably technically annoying.)
David Smith MVN.net -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
