[ NNSquad ] Re: define: "service providers have to manage their networks somehow, especially during peak times."

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

At 11:36 AM 3/28/2008, Robb Topolski wrote:

> I'm in a quandary.  I'm not going to refute -- again -- all of Brett's
> assertions.

You did not refute them the first time.

Since Robb has been allowed a rant, please allow me to indulge in a 
small amount of (hopefully less heated) commentary.

Since I've joined this list, I've seen almost nothing but a torrent 
(pun intended) of animus for all ISPs and a push to regulate us out 
of business. I and my company -- as well as many others -- have 
done nothing to deserve this. I work my fingers to the bone 
providing broadband to people who would never get it otherwise. (I 
practically got frostbite today while installing an antenna to 
serve an area on which I won't make back my infrastructure 
investment for several years.) I manage our network like a mother 
hen. I take business trips, but never vacations (I haven't had an 
actual vacation since 2004). I struggle against anticompetitive 
behavior by corporations tens of thousands of times my size, 
refusal to deal by monopolies, the disrespect of government 
agencies and politicians (who think that if you're not a big 
company, you aren't worthy of the time of day), and outright lies 
(e.g. the City employee who is currently trying to prevent the City 
from buying our services by falsely claiming that they are not 
reliable or secure -- when she uses similar wireless gear in the 
City's mission critical networks now). I know of no one who has 
such a passion for getting people connected, helping them with 
their problems, and getting them the best price possible for 
equipment and access.

I'm an independent ISP. I'm one of a shrinking and endangered 
species which -- ironically -- is threatened by many of the very 
same people who claim to decry the cable/telco duopolies that exist 
in far too many places. And it's rather sad that I have had to join 
this mailing list as a matter of self defense -- to find out how 
its members will next try to destroy me and my business and to 
attempt to refute the BS that's being spread about me and about other ISPs.

Not a fun activity, believe me. I'm a technologist, an inventor, 
and a builder. I have no taste for politics, and only engage in 
them as a matter of self defense. I'm here because I'm fighting for 
my life, folks. Against Robb (who has had his 15 minutes of fame 
but seems to want to stretch it to an hour by continuing to rail 
against a practice that has been discontinued); against Lauren (who 
gets a rush from grabbing headlines with overhyped alarmism and 
seems determined, by not publishing many of my responses, to give 
my opponents the last word when they make misleading or outright 
false statements); against the Orthodox End-to-Endians (including 
Bob Frankston, whom I once considered to be a friend before he went 
off the deep end on this topic); against the EFF (which has taken 
many irrational positions, including intentionally allowing the 
intrusive CALEA law to be passed when it could have stopped it).

Have the folks here ever stopped to think that maybe -- just maybe 
-- your torch bearing, religiously motivated mob is likely not to 
burn down the stone castle but rather the thatch-roofed village? 
That your efforts to regulate broadband will kill rural access, 
slow the speed of nearly everyone's service, and destroy any 
remaining competition for the  cable/telco duopoly?

That maybe you should think first before following the lemmings off the cliff?

I leave tomorrow for Washington, DC, where I spend the week doing 
my best to tell the truth to those who might otherwise hear only 
the propaganda and lies. I don't have money to hire lobbyists or 
buy politicians, so my success may be limited, but I must try.

I'm protecting the livelihood, the life, and the profession I have 
grown to care about so deeply.

So, kindly show me some respect the next time you are inclined to 
call me "evil" for doing the work I love.

--Brett Glass