Re: [Sheflug] Wireless Internet Workshop 9/10th November

[Alex Hudson <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday 23 October 2001 5:52 pm, you wrote:
> Essentially, the subject is under discussion with the licensing
> authority - James Stevens, the prime mover of Consume Net has been to
> in-depth meetings with them, and they haven't threatened to prosecute
> yet!

That doesn't get away from the fact that the 2.4GHz is not licenced for 
public internet access - has James actually got assurance from the radio 
authority that the consume model is legal?

AFAIK, the discussion of a free public local-loop access is based around a 
higher (~3.5GHz?) bandwidth area, which is not usable with 802.11 equipment.

> There is another, more satisfactory bandwidth which is available and
> which consume.net (or a related model) could use for a
> no-money-changes-hands network currently under discussion. 

I presume you're talking about the above :)

> Whether his lobbying power will be sufficient to open up a crack in
> the Telco's stranglehold on the local loop is debatable,

I would say it's harder than that: for the radio authority to re-licence an 
area of the spectrum (i.e., 2.4GHz) than just winning a debate: in fact, I 
would say it is impossible. So unless it's legal now, I don't think it ever 
will be.

> except the Telco's. The question of whether the Telco's should have
> an inalienable right to tax digital communication by whatever means
> then comes into sharp focus.

I see the role of Telcos more as a government method of access control - 
legally, nobody can provide public internet access wirelessly without 
becoming a telco - this benefits government far more than Telcos.

Cheers,
					Alex.
___________________________________________________________________

Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk . 
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to 
shef-lug-request@list.sheflug.org.uk with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.