+1
Thank you Fred, that was very well put!
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On 5/3/12 9:23 PM, Fred Goldstein wrote:
At 5/3/2012 08:41 PM, Faisal Imtiaz wrote:
Personally I don't think there is hardly anyone on the WISPA list that
is in disagreement over having the same views as Mark from the political
standpoint..
The radical difference is over how to deal with it ...
Well, I may disagree with Mark and some other members of the list on
many political points, but I don't let that get in the way of our
mutual interests. You can disagree without being disagreeable, and
concentrate on collaborating on your mutual interests. I even
disagree on some of the positions WISPA apparently took. I think
ARRA was a good program, just too small, though BIP itself was
basically a boondoggle. But a WISP I'm hoping to get going soon is
dependent on BTOP middle mile fiber, as are some other projects I'm
aware of, as is one local government project I'm now working on. In
some states it's a real game changer. (And yeah, in some it's
turning out to be a disaster, but that's a different story.)
But the key point is that no matter how you feel about the way the
game is being played in Washington, either you participate, or you
should stop complaining about it. For the average person,
participation is as easy as voting; for a business in a regulated
industry, it may involve a lot more.
Things used to work better there in the past when both sides could
sit down and negotiate their differences, trading off with each other
until the best compromise could be met. People who believe that
compromise is inherenty bad are preventing progress, and they aren't
making things better for their side either. Likewise, all of that
"government is always the problem" talk is not realistic. There are
all sorts of things that you need government to do, from enforcing
contracts (lest you need a mafia take over that role, as happened in
Russia in the 1990s), to building public infrastructure, to keeping
the food and water safe. You don't miss the water until the well
runs dry; if you don't want government, try Somalia. If you don't
agree with our government, then at least try to make yourself
heard. Even if it is so corrupted by big money that it sometimes
feels like a waste of time. Reclaim democracy, don't surrender it.
WISPA has done great things in representing the industry. Things
could certainly be worse. The FCC has waged a War on ISPs for the
past 11 years. It has killed off most of the wireline ISPs, most of
whom were also small businesspeople playing by the rules. Some have
survived by going wireless, others by being really really good at
what they do and keeping their niche markets alive, but it hasn't
been easy. Had the rest of the small-ISP industry organized itself a
quarter as well as WISPA has, then things might have come out a lot
differently for them. Not that CLECs have done so well either,
though frankly I think they were largely collateral damage, because
ISPs depended on them.
Now the FCC has opened up the question of whether and how WISPs and
other ISPs should pay into the Universal Service Fund. So again the
fact that this group is organized should come in handy.
--
Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com
ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/
+1 617 795 2701
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--
Thanks,
Brough
Brough Turner
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