[wsfii-discuss] Pre-alert situation in Argentina, please help & advice

[Alexander List]

Hi,

during my lobbying work in CEPT SE43 I had a chance to meet Luciana
Camargos. She was previously working at Anacom, the Brazilian regulator,
and when I met her she was working as a "hired gun" (lobbyist)
advocating White Spaces in Europe, on Microsoft's payroll. I can get you
in touch if you want...

I will forward your message anyway, given this list is publicly archived...

Alex

On 11/25/2012 05:42 PM, Ramon Roca wrote:
>
> Sorry for cross-posting, and in English for a wider audience.
>
> Last friday, colleagues from a community wireless which is cooperating
> with us in a small village in Argentina got a visit from
> representatives of the CNC (Comisión Nacional de las Comunicaciones).
> Seems that the inspection was caused by a claim from Telecom, a local
> mobile operator affiliated to Movistar (Telefonica), arguing that was
> interfering to their backbone links.
>
> The inspected nodes are actually composed by low cost wifi routers,
> working al 2.4 band, using the Argentinian regulatory domain, which is
> region 2 of the UIT (same as in the US), with a power between 50mW and
> 100mW and serving Internet to a primary school, and some families in a
> low-income neighborhood.
>
> Our colleagues are very much concerned because of the lack of
> regulations in Argentina. Looks like those CNC officials will come
> back next Thursday asking for shutting down the nodes, or even
> confiscation of the equipment. Although wifi equipment has been widely
> extended in Argentina, the concern is that looks like there are some
> old regulations which require discretionary legalization for any radio
> equipment, and CNC can invoke those regulations for this purpose.
>
> That's why IMHO we are facing a pre-alert situation in Argentina that
> requires to stay tuned on how evolves.
>
> My first impression is that this kind of equipment and and this band
> is very unlikely the cause for any disturbance for mobile operators,
> therefore my first advice to them has been to cooperate with the
> authorities for any technical assessments on site related to the
> spectrum analysis, with the hope that the story will finish here.
>
> But in the meantime and just in case:
>
>  1. Please stay tuned in what happens next Thursday. In case of the
>     network being forced for shutdown or being confiscated, we plan to
>     release a press note reporting those facts, which we believe that
>     might be a serious injury of fundamental rights from citizens from
>     governments and large-corporations, so we will ask for you
>     cooperation disseminating though blogs and social networks worldwide.
>  2. Does anybody know from a local legal contact from Argentina who
>     may assist this wireless community? If someone has a contact,
>     please let me know.
>  3. Any other advice/idea?
>
> Thanks,
> Ramon.
>
>
>
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