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Sprint Nextel Vs. 41 Schools and Non-Profits
netbuzz writes "A case of corporate bullying, or good network citizenship? Sprint Nextel has let slip the dogs of law on the FCC and 41 non-profits, most of them school systems, in an effort to get the FCC to stop granting these organizations special dispensation when they fail to renew their wireless spectrum licenses. These licenses were granted as part of the Educational Broadband Service. The school systems, many of them rural, argue that they don't have the staff or the resources to keep on top of the paperwork and shouldn't be punished for such bureaucratic lapses. (Some generate revenue by leasing unused portions of the spectrum to carriers such as Sprint Nextel.) The schools' argument may sound a bit like 'the dog ate my homework' to some, and Sprint Nextel makes a fairly compelling case that a greater good would be served if the FCC would stop enabling such tardiness."
Sprint also has a nasty habit of buying up spectrum in rural areas and then doing nothing with it primarily to keep competition out.
Do you always post lies, or is this new for you?
No, Sprint hasn't been "illegally causing interference." All of the Sprint/Nextel radios meet FCC specs.
Otherwise, they never could have been put into service. They would not have been FCC Type Accepted.
Were the FCC specs not as good as they should have been? Damn straight. That's the FCC's fault, all the way.
Sorry to nitpick, but:
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene 1)"Let slip" is an interesting phrase; while "slip" is usually unintentional, "let slip" suggests at least knowledge of what is to come.
Kind of like "accidental" takedown notices that impact legitimate content or lawsuit flurries certain to hit at least a few grandmothers without computers, no?
The article claims that some school districts are making money from on-leasing their unused spectrum. I would have thought that keeping your licenses up to date for something that provides you with income is just good sense.
I'd say you're on the right track with this, but it's even simpler. If corporate income taxes are raised, a business will compensate for the potential loss of profits via:
1) Raise prices
2) Lower costs of production (fewer workers, cheaper parts, etc.)
3) Both of the above
The really sad thing about Americans and taxes is that most of us don't realize that an increase in corporate taxes might as well be an increase in individual taxes. The consumers pay for all corporate taxes. It might be in the form of higher prices, or lower quality goods for the same price, lost jobs, or some combination of those three. We just feel better about instituting higher taxes on corporations, because we feel like they're the ones making all the money. Nobody feels good about increasing taxes on individuals.
Marnex Products
The parent seems to have some very harsh words for Sprint-Nextel, but I'm not about to argue with him. I work for a small radio dealer in the Southeast and we operate three 800-Mhz radio tranmsitter sites covering a 10-county fooprint; in fact, we hold the *only* privately-owned 800Mhz spectrum in that part of the state (everyone else there sold out to - you guessed it - Sprint/Nextel). About a couple of years ago we (along with Sprint/Nextel) started our FCC-mandated rebanding; this involved Sprint/Nextel lending us the repeaters to keep our networks on line while we tuned our own repeaters to the new frequencies. Earlier this year the rebanding process was completed and we were due at least a $40,000 payment from Sprint/Nextel for fees and expenses incurred during the rebanding process. This payment was actually due months ago, but Sprint/Nextel has been using various tactics to delay this payment. They seem to know that this company is operating at a razor-thin margin and are hoping for us to go out of business. My guess is that they want to obtain these frequencies and hold them to eliminate any potential competition in the area. As it stands now, our shop is more or less a thorn in Sprint/Nextel's side as far as this particular mid-state market is concerned. I say that because few people I know actually buy Nextel cellphones because of the phone service (their service area sucks outside of interstate and urban areas); they buy these phones because of the radio feature. The problem for Sprint/Nextel is that we can provide similar midstate coverage for nowhere near what they charge customers in the same area - in other words, we are a direct threat to their local business model and they'd love to see us close up shop. The two-way radio industry is a small world and (from what I've heard from other shops) Sprint/Nextel has been sued several times before for using similar tactics against other entities. Apparently we weren't the only victims of Sprint/Nextel's tendency to play fast and loose with the rules, and that fact is the reason we 've had a Washington, D.C. communications attorney on retainer for the past few months (BTW the attorney's fees are also included in that payment due to us, so they've also managed to piss off a couple of D.C. lawyers as well). We'll see if we can avoid having to sue them ourselves, as our attorneys seem to have made some headway in the case. As of this writing we should be receiving payment within the next couple of days (I can hardly wait - Sprint/Nextel owes a few thousand dollars in rebanding fees alone). Otherwise, I guess we'll be seeing them in court.
This space for rent!
In my area, Nextel moved in (several years ago), and "bought" rights to the 800 MHz spectrum. The funny thing was, they came to my business, and said "We see you're using the (currently free) 800MHz spectrum for your truck to HQ communications... How would you like to buy our nifty phones that do what you're doing for free?"
Obvious answer - hell no.
Shortly thereafter, Nextel serves us with a notice, telling us that the 800MHz spectrum we're using has been bought by them, and that we are no longer legally allowed to use those frequencies. Therefore, its "logical" that we purchase their system now, or face FCC violation fines.
Who's the one being hurt here Nextel? Yeah, after that, we have refused to do business with Nextel, and will continue to badmouth them whenever there is an opportunity.
Spending FUD!
The people with interests in Defense tout numbers that say we spend too much on Human Services, and the people with interests in Human Services tout numbers that say we spend too much on Defense. Personally, I think they are both right. We as a nation spend too much money. If we eliminated half the bureaucrats in DC, we would get more done. When you spend more money then you take in, that causes problems down the road. If I ran my house or business the way the US is run financially, I would be doing serious jail time.
Defense:
We spend too much money on development of technologies that will NEVER be used. Missile defense is irrelevant when you take into account the fact that you can do more damage with a guy with a suitcase then with a missile. And those figures DON'T include the "Emergency Spending" bills that have been passed.
Education:
We spend too much money on mid-level patronage jobs. And we have done nothing to teach our children how to think critically. The kids that I have seen are taught to parrot information and conform. We wonder why our kids aren't that creative? We need to spend our money on programs that teach kids how to access, analyze and implement information as opposed to barfing it back up on tests.
I am a cynic, but how could I look at politics and not be?
I'm a happy pessimist. I expect and prepare for the worst, when it doesn't happen I am pleasantly surprised.