more on Re: University Bans Wireless Access Points

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins () gmail com>
Date: September 10, 2004 11:34:22 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: david.e.young () verizon com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Re: University Bans Wireless Access Points
Reply-To: Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins () gmail com>

Dave,

The fact that it is state-owned property (not private property as the
Verizon poster asserts) is irrelevant.  Tenants have rights that
landlords can't abrogate. The FCC stated clearly in its ruling that
the Denver airport could not restrict its tenant, United Airlines,
from using 2.4 gigahertz spectrum for its own private Wi-Fi network.

JUNE 28, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The Federal Communications Commission
last week handed airlines a victory in their battle with airport
authorities over control of Wi-Fi spectrum at airports, ruling that it
has exclusive jurisdiction over the use of unlicensed spectrum
"regardless of venue."

http://www.computerworld.com/industrytopics/travel/story/ 
0,10801,94147,00.html?from=story_kc

The Denver airport, landlord, cannot restrict use of Wi-Fi by a
tenant, United Airlines.  UT-Dallas is landlord and the students in
university apartments are tenants.

This is unlicensed spectrum and the FCC has spoken clearly.  Cordless
phones and microwave ovens also jam 802.11 b and g; I don't see how a
landlord can ban those devices on interference grounds, either.

The only leverage I can see for a university is to declare that you
can't connect a Wi-Fi access point to the campus network, as a matter
of acceptable use policy.  But that's not the case here; they are
connecting to cable modems.

With access points for sale for $50 this is going to be a HUGE problem
for universities building campus-wide Wi-Fi networks, but unless the
FCC carves out an exception, that's just the way it is.

/rich

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:13:49 -0400, David Farber <dave () farber net>  
wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:

> > From: david.e.young () verizon com
> > Date: September 10, 2004 4:15:06 AM PDT
> > To: dewayne () dandin com
> > Subject: [IP] University Bans Wireless Access Points
> >
> >
> > Hi Dewayne,
> >
> > I'm not so sure that this would go to court given that this is the
> > University's private property.  As such, I would think they can
> > pretty much set the rules as they see fit.

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