First erratum for National Broadband Plan: WISPs given short shrift

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>
> Date: March 16, 2010 8:32:38 AM EDT
> To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>
> Subject: First erratum for National Broadband Plan: WISPs given  
> short shrift

> Dave, and everyone:
>
> Got up early this morning to begin reading the FCC's freshly  
> released National Broadband Plan. Unfortunately, one of the first  
> things I discovered -- after searching for the acronym WISP  
> (wireless Internet service provider) -- is that the plan gives short  
> shrift to our industry by making apples-to-oranges comparisons  
> between the number of people actually SERVED by WISPs and the number  
> of people COVERED by other forms of fixed wireless broadband.
>
> On page 77 of the report, a table purports to list the number of  
> persons covered by various wireless technologies. But while it shows  
> this number as 30 million (projected) for Clearwire and 6 million  
> (also projected) for OpenRange Communications (the approximate  
> populations of the geographic areas they cover or plan to cover), it  
> quotes the number of people ACTUALLY SERVED by WISPs -- 2 million --  
> in the same table, making WISPs appear to have much less coverage  
> than they actually do.
>
> In fact, as can be clearly seen on the static map at
>
> http://www.wirelessmapping.com/WISP%20National%20Map.png
>
> or the interactive Google map at
>
> http://www.wirelessmapping.com/Google%20Maps3.htm
>
> WISPs cover more than 250 million people -- the majority of the  
> population of the United States and far more than either of these  
> two individual providers.
>
> Could this very serious apples-to-oranges error have resulted in the  
> plan's failure to recommend more of the specific policies which  
> would facilitate WISPs' efforts to bring service to unserved and  
> underserved areas at the lowest cost per square mile of any  
> terrestrial broadband technology?
>
> Since the plan's Executive Summary states that the plan is "still in  
> beta," perhaps this can be the first erratum.
>
> --Brett Glass, LARIAT



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