[HamWAN PSDR] Holy smokes, we have Internet address space!

[The Doctor]

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On 02/22/2013 07:46 PM, Bart Kus wrote:
> Hello, "The Doctor"!  Do you have a The Name? :)  I do remember
> reading

If you like, call me Bryce.  Most everybody else does.

> about Byzantium when I was doing initial research for HamWAN, so
> welcome to the mailing list!

Thank you very much.

> You make an interesting, but scary point about laws banning public 
> networks.  I'm not so much worried about ISP policies; ISPs can be

Not necessarily, due to existing non-competition laws.  Telecom
companies tend to have limited monopoly rights in certain areas (such
as Comcast being the only cable company in an area, or all broadband
links being owned by Covad, which other broadband providers have to
rent from to rebrand).

For example, in Washington, DC (where I live) there are regions of the
city where broadband isn't possible because the non-competition laws
don't permit any of the usual suspects build out the infrastructure
because they'd be stepping on the toes of the other telecom companies.
 Columbia Heights is one such area, meaning that HacDC is limited to
cellular access and the T-1 that our landlord negotiated from someone
for a scary price.  There are no plans to extend FiOS or even ADSL
into this area because everybody's lawyers will cry foul - we've
tried.  And don't get me started on the municial fibre network which
nobody but the government of DC is allowed to connect to (not even the
public schools).  For more information on that, please contact the New
America Foundation (newamerica.net) because they are the subject
matter experts in wireless policy these days.

> changed.  I've surfed through the link you provided and while it
> makes claims that laws have been passed, I can't seem to find any
> direct link to state legislature legal websites which publish the
> ratified laws.

§ 54.16.330, "(b) For the provision of wholesale telecommunications
services within the district and by contract with another public
utility district.  Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to
authorize public utility districts to provide telecommunications
services to end users."

Also, this bit from section 2: "Rates, terms, and conditions are
discriminatory or preferential when a public utility district offering
rates, terms, and conditions to an entity for wholesale
telecommunications services does not offer substantially similar
rates, terms, and conditions to all other entities seeking
substantially similar services."

In other words, municipal projects that compete with existing LECs
can't actually compete with the LECs.

> The short blurb of laws cited at the top of this page 
> <http://www.cybertelecom.org/states/wa.htm> only seems to require
> that any public network give explicit authorization to the general
> public for connections.  This seems like a reasonable policy and
> should not kill intentional public networks.  In our case, we're
> not an open public

Except for the bit where it also can't compete directly with existing
providers, who have limited monopoly rights.  If they see it as a
threat they'll close it down.

If you like, I can contact some legal experts who are involved in this
aspect of community wireless, I'm on the engineering side.  I speak
Babel better than legalese. :)

> network, and do require user registrations.  Since we're using
> spectrum reserved for hams, we just have to make sure each user is
> a ham.  It's not hard to become a ham, either.  So we're just 1
> step removed from being fully open to the general public.  :)

In that regard, I think you should be fine.  It would be hard for an
ISP to claim that you're trying to cause trouble in a non-compete area.

> The laws on the main page look to be concerned with local
> GOVERNMENTS offering free networks and stomping out free enterprise
> competition.

Not just governments; the project in Portland, OR got shut down, in
part, due to legal pressure from Verizon and Comcast out there.  It
also didn't help the project that got killed in Pittsburgh back in '01.

- -- 
The Doctor [412/724/301/703] [ZS]
Developer, Project Byzantium: http://project-byzantium.org/

PGP: 0x807B17C1 / 7960 1CDC 85C9 0B63 8D9F  DD89 3BD8 FF2B 807B 17C1
WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/

"'PC LOAD LETTER'?!  What the /[a-z]{4}/ does that mean??" --Michael
Bolton, _Office Space_

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