Below is a posting I made to the public WISPA Mailing List.
Note that I'm not posting the message I'm responding to as I don't own those words and don't have permission to repost, but the entire exchange is available at mail.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/2007-July/027980.html.
[WISPA] 700 MHz - The Other View
Steve Stroh steve at stevestroh.net
Mon Jul 9 10:55:04 CDT 2007
Scriv:
I disagree your statement that "If they use [700 MHz] to sell broadband wireless Internet then by definition those parties will then become WISPs." I doubt that Verizon Communications (landlines) and Verizon Wireless would consider themselves WISPs merely by acquiring more spectrum - any more than they do now considering that they both own considerable amounts of spectrum and both already offer Broadband Wireless Internet Access. Do you consider Sprint / Nextel a WISP (they're doing Broadband Wireless in 2.5 GHz)? Is AT&T a WISP (they're doing BW in 2.3 GHz)? How about Clearwire? No... there's a very clear stratification between WISPs and other players that isn't bridged by the common use of Broadband Wireless Internet Access, or use of a particular portion of spectrum.
(Click below to continue the story.)
The main thrust of the article... at least as I saw it... was to offer caution to WISPs who are considering entering the bidding for 700 MHz spectrum.
I wish it were the case that the existence of new spectrum such as 700 MHz results in new services. But unfortunately, that's not the way of the world. We have ample precedent that those who acquire spectrum largely DON'T use it; thus I remain skeptical that 700 MHz will translate to "... a means of delivering broadband in rural areas... " as you state. The main reason for this is, and it's a mild criticism of the worldview of the average WISP, is that rural areas are not a priority for large companies (that have the deep pockets to win spectrum auctions). Simply, brutally put, rural areas aren't where the money is. You don't need any better evidence of this than Verizon, one of the biggest telecommunications companies (and a potential bidder for 700 MHz) is DIVESTING itself of its operations in entire rural states, such as Maine.
So... will 700 MHz licenses in rural areas be snapped up, probably by
large companies? Oh yes indeed! Does it follow that those new owners of
700 MHz licenses will actually build out systems in rural areas? No,
largely because experience argues just the opposite - check out how
many systems Aloha Partners discusses having constructed, considering
that "Aloha currently owns 12MHz of spectrum covering 60% of the United
States - including all of the top 10 markets and 84% of the population
in the top 40 markets". Answer... none. Aloha Partners is sitting on
its spectrum, hoping it will appreciate, maybe that some bigger player
will buy it, and they'll end up with a tidy profit on its investment.
Or maybe they're just waiting for better, cheaper systems to emerge. Or
they're waiting for... whatever. The bottom line
is that there are no Broadband Systems being built with that particular
spectrum, and no new customers being served, no additional competition
for Broadband services being brought to bear.
But mostly I'm disappointed what you chose to focus in the article on was my mild criticism of WISPA's participation in a "closed door" collaboration with very large companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, Google, etc. regarding television whitespaces. No, I wasn't griping about being (individually) excluded from the discussions. My criticism was much more broad - I felt that the entire WISPA membership... and the WISP community as a whole, was excluded from the discussions. This from an organization which prides itself on being open, transparent, democratic, and "of, by, and for WISPs"? It didn't seem that way to me, and that "closed door" mindset was, to me, a worrisome development for WISPA. Even more worrisome is that WISPA's leadership, reflected by your attitude, is defensive and apparently proud of their "closed doors" participation in the television whitespaces collaboration with Intel, etc.
But those are the comments of one WISP industry observer. If you choose to "shoot the messenger" instead of addressing the actual comments and criticisms, so be it.
Thanks,
Steve
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
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