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Kevin, Thanks for that link. It looks like you are being heard. I would say "keep it up" - keep meeting with those legislators. Meeting with local reporters and emphasizing the cost (and cost-savings) angle should be a powerful argument in your favor. jack Kevin Owen wrote: Hi Jack, Oh ya, the fix is in to be sure. I watered down the information to try and be brief and to the point. We have been fighting for a while and the standard seems to be constantly shifting.We, myself and other local ISP's, were just at the State Capitol yesterday in front of the Legislators and Administration to have a discussion. Today it was announced they were going to hold off on a decision to continue moving the budget forward until they can gather a bit more information. If you are interested, here is the newest of a growing number of articles about the situation. http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/03/11/1114092/idaho-agency-budget-delayed-amid.html Kevin -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Jack Unger Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 8:43 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] State Education Networks? Kevin, It sounds like the large corporate "political fix" may already be "in" but in politics nothing is ever final. I'd suggest getting together with some other local and regional ISPs and using publicity (responsibly) to hold the State's feet to the fire. You can use the financial "bottom line" to get the public's attention. Good luck, jack Kevin Owen wrote:The State I provide service in (Idaho) is in the process of building a Statewide Educational Network. I am interested in hearing from any of you are providing service in a State that has built a State Educational Network and if so, are local providers used to provide any of the last miles services to the schools? Idaho started by saying they would work with the local providers, however, now they have changed their tune and local providers are not given the opportunity to even bid on the service. Qwest is charging at least 3 - 5 times what any of the other local ISP's could or would charge for the same or more bandwidth. We are simply told we are not able to provide the service due to technical reasons, however, the State thus far has not defined what those technical reasons are. The difference in cost per year is in the millions. Our State IT group is also saying this is how it is done in other states to provide a quality and cost effective network. So does anybody provide any last mile services to any Statewide educational network? Thanks, Kevin First Step Internet, LLC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ -- Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. Network Design - Technical Training - Technical Writing Serving the Broadband Wireless, Networking and Telecom Communities since 1993 www.ask-wi.com 818-227-4220 jun...@ask-wi.com |
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