When I got around to reading NTK, I found this as the lead story
(www.ntk.net - excellent UK ezine):
Last week was the closing date for comments for the
government's "Independent Spectrum Review". Usually we leave
all this radio stuff to the hams (the geeks). But from a
Netty point of view, the review responses say a lot about
how folk are responding to the cheapo wireless net
connections built by 802.11b hackers like Consume.Net. The
3G companies don't look scared (not as scared as those
Bluetooth guys, anyway), but, boy, would they rather it all
went away. "The market and value of [our] licensed spectrum
is distorted", insists Hutchison, if those mini-ISPs with
their funny beards and Apple AirPorts are allowed to
compete. Fortunately for Hutchison, it's illegal for them to
compete. In a ruling that would drive RMS nuts, 802.11a
users aren't allowed to share their Net connection
wirelessly with anyone but their own. And the authorities,
embarassed about bankrupting most of the big telcos with
that 3G auction, look likely to keep to that rule - even
though most other countries are more liberal. The nice
government's preferred compromise seems to be: shuffle all
the WLAN crazies off the 2.4Mhz network to 5GHz where, they
say, ISPs will be allowed. That sounds good to the 3G folk,
because the 5Ghz 802.11a hardware isn't around yet, so they
can beat the hackers to the wireless broadband punch. Also,
802.11a's range doesn't spread as far as 802.11b, so the ISP
idea's doomed anyway. Meanwhile, the Starbucks-with-wireless
Net access springing up over the US remain verboten in
Britain. Guess the UK'll have to wait for our wireless
bandwidth until the nice kindly corp's are ready for us.
http://www.interesting-people.org/200108/0190.html
- not as bad as the tsk-tsking free-marketeers make it sound
http://www.spectrumreview.radio.gov.uk/
- although it'd help to have a Net guy on these panels
http://www.smag.radio.gov.uk/index.htm
- with the other smagheads
Regards,
Michael Skeggs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Littlejohn [mailto:darius@bofh.net.au]
> Sent: 28 August 2001 01:18
> To: Michael Skeggs
> Subject: Re: [LINK] 'Parasitic grid' could undermine wireless
> revenues
>
>
>
> The fine is in regard to ACCC regulations regarding telco's
> and transmission of
> data. The rough version is that you can't carry third-party
> data over your
> own wireless network - so internet to yourself is probably
> ok, but giving
> someone else a ride over that is likely not - and selling
> access over it is
> strictly verboten. You can get the ACCC to issue a ruling
> for your particular
> case if you feel like pushing the boundaries - the law is
> pretty vague about
> what's allowed and what's not (or rather, people's
> interpretations of the law
> are).
>
> KevinL
>
> >>> Michael Skeggs wrote
> > > From: Adam Todd [mailto:at@ah.net]
> > > Without a carrier licence it's impossible to do unless you
> > > want to pay lots
> > > of fines.
> >
> > Isn't the idea of this spread spectrum wireless that it
> does not need to be
> > licensed? Or is the fine in regard to acting as a telco
> without a licence?
> > Regards,
> > Michael Skeggs
> >
>
>
> --
> Internet techie Obsidian Consulting Group
> Specialising in proxy servers and traffic measuring/billing.
> http://www.obsidian.com.au/ darius@obsidian.com.au
>
>
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