It should be noted that the today that we face is not neceesarilly an indication of a bad thing. It was just a fork in the road, and the big telco lobbiests reached the fork shortly before us. What we have here is a chance to make a meaningful permanent change on spectrum policy. A fast track that doesn;t come along often. Congress has that power. But with every opportunity there also comes risk attached, and the risk is great if we are not at the top of our game. This is NOT the time to be weak, it is the time that demands strength and persistence. This is where we say, we dont give up and aren't willing to go away, and we simply aren't going to let congress try to take our innovative drive away.
And where we have the courage and responsibilty to call it like we see it, and not accept when the FCC does wrong, we also have the equal obligation to defend our FCC that we have intemently interacted with over the years. When I testified on NetNEutrality for the republicans, ATT claimed to be for the NetNeutrality rules. The republicans, dragged out the truth that ATT did NOT like the rules, they just agreed that they were less harmful than the rules could have been, and they were willing to reduce risk, and except less harmful rules. The republicans were quick to use that to there advantage and argue that "settling for less harmful" should not be adequate testimony to contitute being in favor of, and that we should have rules that benefit us, not just that are less harmful, if we are to have successful broadband policy. I see no reason we cant use that same arguement against the House committee. Right now, the majority bill is horrid. So we show more support for the minority companion bill that is less harmful. Allthough we can agree and testify that the new minority bill is less harmful and preverable than the other, we can not loose focus that both bills are harmful in some capacity. We need to tell congress what we honestly really think, and we need a stronger stance. A very very relevent point is that there has been an eight year public open process on whitespace where 3 administrations had been involved ans all concluded the value of unlicensed and allocation of Whitespace to unlicensed in significant capacity. For congress to undermine that would be undermining public opinion. There is proof, 8 years of FCC records showing that the FCC's decission represented the public interests. Congresss has an obligation to represent the public interest. I would argue that the only evidence that we need to support our claim is submit FCC historical record as evidence. In my opinion, ignoring that evidence in favor of big money lobbyiest, or to assist with poor federal budgeting, would be corruption. The bills are scary, but that does not mean we have to let them pass. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Forbes Mercy" <forbes.me...@wabroadband.com> To: <memb...@wispa.org>; "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 9:03 AM Subject: [WISPA] The Legislative Situation Is Dire > TO WISP's > > I'm not much of an alarmist and I would never claim the sky is falling > unless I had positive proof. Right now WISPA is faced with what I > perceive as the most serious threat to our industry to date. Some of > you may complain that the FCC is an overreaching intruder into our > business. While Federal Government oversight and regulations into our > rapidly growing industry may seem intrusive WISPA has always had their > ear and we feel they listen and include us into much of their decision > making process. There is no doubt they truly want nation-wide service > and recognize the lack of enthusiastic expansion by major players > (legacy carriers) into the rural area which is our strongest argument. > > Starting with Net Neutrality we noticed that Congress was starting to > politicize the work of the FCC. Some of you thought that was a good > thing since you felt the FCC was slow in releasing frequencies. The > micro-management of the FCC on that first issue has rapidly grown to > full fledged taking over of the FCC's mission. Once the legacy > characters found that they could go around the FCC to Congress, where > they already give millions in "donations", they knew they had one big > leg up on small budget organizations like WISPA. They are now flexing > their full lobbying muscle by getting some 'friends' in Congress to > introduce bills that would freeze any future expansion of the WISP > market locking us out of the lower frequencies that we need to penetrate > vegetation and terrain. Much like teaching the Internet to your parents > other legislators look at the new laws with dazed amazement and just say > OK not realizing the ramifications and listening to the lobbyist spin. > > WISPA is not sitting back on this one, last year our board was not > afraid to go far out of budget to get our feet firmly in the door on > issues such as TV White Spaces (TV White Spaces) and the Universal > Service Fund change to Connect America Fund (CAF). It appears all that > work is now under scrutiny by Congress and their answer seems to be one > of 'lets just put all frequencies up for bid, licensed and unlicensed'. > None of us WISP's could afford to bid against the likes of AT&T and > Verizon and it has the potential of locking all small business out of > any future frequencies. > > Yesterday the Legislative, FCC, and Promotions Committee of WISPA got > together and released a letter to all Congressional Members of several > committees relevant to this battle, in addition we paid to have a formal > press release sent to the media objecting to this path that both the > Senate and House seem to be pursuing. We are now interviewing potential > Lobbyists (something we've never needed before) and, other firms that > can help us with this new front we have to fight on. > > Where WISPA will have to go to get the ear of Congress to stop this > insane path is all new to us but we are up to the challange. We have > great legal counsel, members that can attend and testify hearings, > allies in other groups such as New America feel the pain like us on this > issue. We will be making alliances, learning how to do social > networking to reach our members, our members subscribers and, anyone who > will side with us to form grass roots efforts to get the attention of > Congress. At this point we are not asking for a special assessment or > other means to aggressively answer this call, we are within budget so > far but it's hard to say how far this will go. We simply are asking you > to watch closely what we inform membership, prepare to be involved > because unless you are content with the current frequencies and rules we > are under you will directly be affected by this Congressional action. > > If we give in to these irrational rules don't think Congress or the > legacy characters will stop there, if they sell the revenue model > successfully they could go after existing frequencies too. WISPA will > be releasing talking points next week so that you can help us by making > appointments with your Congressperson while they are in district during > the month of August. We really need to educate them that this path is > bad for America and their constituents. If you need constant updates > please join the Legislative Committee as we will be posting most of the > Legislative work in that venue. Thank you for your time and we > appreciate you realizing the huge task we have ahead of us. > > Forbes Mercy > WISPA VP/Legislative Chair > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
