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Regulatory Fees on the 802.11 Broadcast Spectrum?
Demerara asks: "I live in the Caribbean where I am putting together a business plan for a WISP on St. Lucia. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the St. Lucian National Telecomms Regulatory Commission here licenses and charges fees for 2.4Ghz spread spectrum applications. It's nearly US$400 to apply and, get this, nearly US$800 per link, per *year*. This blows the economics of a WISP out of the water. I may be reading the laws and regulations wrong but I don't think so. For example - they even charge an application fee and an annual license for the 'Family Band' walkie-talkies - look in the fees PDF. I am attempting to find out the following: what international agreements govern spectrum management; what international agreements govern licensing of WiFi or 802.11;
and finally, are there any Slashdot readers out there who live in countries where 802.11 technology is also licensed or heavily regulated? The ITU website doesn't seem to answer these questions or, to be fair, I cannot come up with the keywords to find the answers. I'd love to hear from others who use or operate 802.11 under less than 'free' regulatory regimes."
No, when the restrictions were challenged, they surrendered.
You're going to give the United States Congress too many ideas. Or worse, California... :)
And thanks heaps to Cliff for posting this where politicians might see it!
I had a sucky sig.
I wonder when we'll have to pay licensing fees for our microwaves, since you know, they do emit microwaves at some frequency
Perhaps you need to "donate" some funds to the local regulator.
Kill the White Man
Cuervo Nation should totally regulate frequencies commonly used by satelites, and then sue those satellite radio dudes. I mean sure, they'd be in the clear so long as they never went to Cuervo Nation, but then I ask you, dudes, how would they have a good time? Would they be barred from Cuervo Nation for the rest of their lives? They'd have to submit to Cuervo's every demand.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Thus if anyone goes to war with France, crippling their military communications will be even easier than previously expected.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Why do all of their antennas have a white flag on them?
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It's just a matter of time before we ALL have to pay fees for wifi. Enjoy it while you can. :)
(adjusts tinfoil hat)
hahahahah that was labled "informative" that was obviously a joke... if I were french and happened to be challenged on that assertion, id most definitely surrender.
-Digital Extremist
White flags are a symbol in france, they mean we slept with your woman anglo pig-dog
Quit whining about paying for wireless spectrum. After all, someone has to produce that spectrum. You can't just expect the government or private industry to make spectrum all day long and then give it away.
;-)
Spectrum is hard to make. I mean, look how long it took to perfect 2.4Ghz spectrum and produce enough to support WiFi. All those R&D costs have to be paid by someone! I'm not even counting the investment needed to build a spectrum manufacturing plant.
The US government is able to give it away for free only because of payments from WiFi manufacturers. The WiFi group shrewdly knew that the market would open wide if there was free 2.4Ghz radio spectrum.