WISPAOpens First Ever Regional Meeting
The Wireless ISPAssociation's (WISPA) regional meeting opened its doors yesterday withregistered attendees numbering over 250 and representatives of 40 sponsors.
The meeting openedwith a panel session featuring three great wireless pioneers: Dewayne Hendricks,who has just returned from Saipan where he installed a 60 mile wireless linkover water and showed the FCC that Wi-Fi works outdoors; Doug Karl of Karlnetwho brought several key technologies to the WISP business in the early 1990sthat are part of what makes the business successful today, and Patrick Leary of Aperto, who has been a tirelesswireless evangelist during the past decade and who was recognized by WISPA in2008 for his outstanding contributions to the WISP industry.
WISPA's FCCCommittee presented its TV white spaces work to attendees, describing theregulatory opportunities and challenges that the industry faces in Washington,D.C. Fiber gurus such as Donny Smith, whose network covers almost hundreds ofrural square miles, showed attendees how to add fiber to the network. Othersessions covered LTE, 4G, WiMAX, voice over IP (VoIP), and additionaltechnologies. A key session on the art of marketing featured Martha Huizenga,partner at WISP DC Access, and Elizabeth Bowles, president of Aristotle.net.
In his openingremarks, WISPA president Rick Harnish thanked all of those who had made themeeting possible, including attorney Steve Coran of Rini Coran PC, and boardmembers Jack Unger, and Forbes Mercy. Harnish also thanked WISPA foundingpresident John Scrivner. Members expressed their enthusiasm for the meeting andfor Harnish's role in its success.
The keynoteluncheon speech was provided by Michael Calabrese, vice president of the NewAmerica Foundation and director of its Wireless Future Program. Calabresefocused on the volume of spectrum that may be reallocated by the federalgovernment's National Broadband Plan and noted that government policy couldcreate a "tragedy of the anti-commons" in which the most efficient uses ofspectrum, which include sharing, light licensing, and unlicensed use, areignored in favor of auctions, which raise money in the short term but restrictthe economic potential of the nation in the long term.
WISPA is pleased tohave Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, asthe keynote speaker for day two of the St. Louis Regional Meeting. Knapp willgive a speech titled, "The FCC and WISPs."
Peter Stanforth,CTO and co-founder of Spectrum Bridge, will also give a keynote discussing theongoing TV white spaces trials. As wireless ISPs examine the better and moreefficient services that they may soon be able to deploy thanks to spectrumreleased through the national broadband plan and the FCC, such updates are oneof the many important professional services that WISPA provides its members.