[10535] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Free, high-speed regional telecomm! (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Warren)
Mon Aug 19 20:36:23 1996
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 15:21:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
At 05:27 PM 08/13/96, PACS-L Moderator wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>>From: easterj@mis.finchcms.edu (Jeff Easter)
>>Subject: Re: Free, high-speed regional telecomm! (fwd)
>>
>>This series of messages was posted about a year ago. Does anybody know the
>>latest news on this.
>>
...
Please note that my message that was quoted (below), is more than a YEAR OLD.
Things are moving rapidly on this. Apple caved in to pressure from the
giant telecomm industry, and went along with a revised proposal that limits
power so tightly that it's worthless for community networking -- but can be
useful for in-office wireless datacomm (using expensive wireless modems)
... that the group is hyping as being for schools and libraries (that can't
afford the technology in many/most? cases!).
For latest details -- and to find out how to have what little say you might
be able to have in the process designed by and for the Beltway Bandits in
Washingtoontown, prowl the FCC's wimpy, limited website at www.fcc.gov ...
and then howl bloody murder to *all* of president@whitehouse.gov,
vicepresident@whitehouse.gov and also by fax or snailmail to the Chair AND
all members of the FCC.
There is also excellent and comprehensive information available (last time
I looked) at http://www.warpspeed.com/ -- which has become one of the sites
for those who are advocating *real* public-access spectrum for
equally-shared, free and low-cost public use.
Be assured: This IS a political issue, and in this election year, voters'
vigorous demands that all the previously-public spectrum NOT be so
brain-damaged as to be useless, and NOT be sold off to the highest
big-bucks bidder, CAN have an impact.
Speak up NOW ... or deserve the consequences.
And spread the word -- while we still can, without having to pay by the byte.
--jim
Jim Warren, GovAccess list-owner/editor, advocate & columnist (jwarren@well.com)
345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request>
[puffery FWIW: Hugh M. Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation;
James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Cal.;
Pioneer Award, Electronic Frontier Foundation (its first year, 1992);
founded InfoWorld, DataCast, Computers, Freedom & Privacy confs, etc. :-).]
>>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>Date: Tue, 4 Jul 1995 18:42:45 -0700
>>>From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
>>>To: GovAccess@well.com, FOI-L <foi-l@listserv.syr.edu>
>>>Subject: GovAccess.154-CRUCIAL!!!: Free, high-speed regional telecomm!
>>>
>>>This is one of the most important public policy items I have ever posted!
>>>
>>>
>>>FREE voice and data communications for residential, educational, business,
>>>community, city, county, rural *and* mobile voice and data-communications.
>>>
>>>ALL OF US can have FREE metropolitan-area voice, data and compressed-video
>>>communications - point-to-point, and for that matter, point-to-multipoint
>>>(i.e., everyone becomes a broadcaster, but only to those whom they permit
>>>to receive!).
>>>
>>>
>>>Have the FCC declare a tiny portion of what was once *understood* to be the
>>>public's broadcast spectrum to be - in fact - PUBLIC SPECTRUM (a range of
>>>frequencies available for free public use). The formal petition has
>>>ALREADY BEEN FILED with the FCC. The rule-making PROCESS HAS ALREADY
>>>BEGUN; public comments have already been solicited.
>>>
>>>
>>>What they're asking for is simple enough: 300 megahertz of prime real
>>>estate up at 5 gigahertz, enough to accommodate high density
>>>24-megabit-per-second connections in a fluid mix of local and wide area
>>>networking. This amounts to about $40 billion worth of spectrum, if you go
>>>by the size of the checks the phone companies wrote for Personal
>>>Communications Services (PCS) frequencies. And, oh yeah, they don't want it
>>>for themselves. They want it made available free to all comers, subject
>>>only to interference-reducing technical standards. No auctions, no license
>>>fees, no regulations on what it's used for, and no airtime charges.
...
