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WISPA Meets With the FCC, Urges WISPs to File Form 477

WISPA told members of the ISP-Wireless list that the stature of all wireless internet service providers depends upon everyone telling the FCC they exist.

[February 21, 2007]

Yesterday, George Rogato of WISPA, the Wireless Internet Service Providers' Association, told members of the ISP-Wireless list about a recent visit to the offices of the FCC and FTC in Washington, D.C. He reiterated a plea to ISPs to file Form 477 with the FCC, saying what Zip Codes you operate in. Since FCC policy is determined by the data it works none too hard to collect (see Flawed FCC Data Guarantees Flawed Policy), it is currently basing policy on the idea that there are only 500 WISPs in the U.S., whereas WISPA (and ISP-Planet) believe there are many, many more.

Rogato wrote:

This past Thursday, Tom DeReggi, Brent Anderson, and myself, George Rogato went to Washington DC to meet with the FCC. We went representing WISPA (www.WISPa.org) in hopes of shoring up the standing of WISPs in the eyes of the FCC.

It was a very welcoming visit. The FCC took a couple of hours to talk with us about a few issues and were very open and candid.

The one subject that I would like to talk to you about is the Form 477 filing.

Background
In the past, we have told the FCC that there was between 4,000 and 8,000 WISPs servicing the USA and helping bring high speed internet to both served and under served markets. We, our WISP industry, has been asking for more spectrum to allow us to better serve our markets and to penetrate deeper into the hard to reach areas as well as add capacity.

During our discussions it was revealed to us that only 500 WISPs bothered to file form 477 to let the FCC know that we exist and what Zip Codes we service.

This was not a good revelation, but rather a very disappointing one to those at the FCC who have tried to help us.

They were very disappointed that:

1. all WISPs did not file their 477, "as the law requires" and
2. Maybe there are not 4,000 WISPs actually serving anyone and that maybe we lied to them.

The consequences of not filing 477, maybe there is no WISPs that really need additional UL spectrum and that they have been hoodwinked. Maybe when it's time to open up new spectrum, it will just be auctioned off to the highest bidder, rather than leave some set aside for the UL hometown WISPs to use.

Now we can argue anything we want on these lists, but the fact of the matter is, if you don't file your required 477, then we won't be taken seriously.

So, if you have not filed 477, do it now.

It's not just the law; it's good for the WISP industry
Don't ponder whether or not you want to, but rather it's the law and your hurting your industry and are subject to penalties.

It was also revealed to us, that they are not using that information to chase down those who use uncertified gear or give your information to your competitors. Fact is there was only 24 cases of enforcement in the Unlicensed Frequencies last year, and most of those dealt with interference to licensed frequencies. They are not out there looking for you to penalize you in some way, but rather trying to gather the statistics to help those in need.

If there are no WISPs using unlicensed spectrum, then there is no need to open more unlicensed spectrum.

Hopefully you get the picture.

—End