The CBC is reporting that First Nations in Manitoba want compensation for every cell phone signal that passes through their land because it violates their airspace. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs recently resolved to negotiate revenue sharing with Manitoba Telecom Services. Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nations says "When it comes to using airspace, it's like using our water and simply because there's no precedent doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do." This move may inspire First Nations in other provinces to follow suit.
Revenue?
OK, as soon as they have coughed up a couple billion neccessary for the networks and their infrastructure. Investment comes before profit (sorry, guys, that's a 3rd millennium AD rule. It's called 'progress'....).
I wonder, do commercial airlines and military aircraft also avoid their 'airspace'? In the US, a home owner supposedly has rights under his property to the center of the earth and over his property to the distance of 500 feet (iirc). The electromagnetic 'airspace' is 'owned' by the FCC. Imagine the chaos if every home owner decided to sue for airspace royalties.
On the otherhand, I thought it would be legitimate for me to charge solicitors who call me trying to sell their goods. See, my justification is, they are using my telephone equipment and time to conduct their business. I have a right to be compensated for that.
On the otherhand, I thought it would be legitimate for me to charge solicitors who call me trying to sell their goods. See, my justification is, they are using my telephone equipment and time to conduct their business. I have a right to be compensated for that.
I think I'll use that on the next solicitor that calls. I'll just tell the person: "I'd love to hear everything about your product. Now, if I can just get your credit card number, I'll set you up for talking to me. The charge is $10.00/ minute, with a minimum 10 minute charge".
It might not be that simple.
It all depends on their "Nation" status.
For example, Amaerican Airlines pays Cuba a tax for every airplane that flys over Cuba on it's way to the Caribbean or SA.
But then that is something physical and easly tracked.
I don't know about radio waves.
I was at the Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona a year or so ago and it was impossible to get cell service until we got back to Flagstaff. With the obvious poverty on the reservation I suppose cell phones are not a big concern.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Minimalist wrote:I was at the Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona a year or so ago and it was impossible to get cell service until we got back to Flagstaff. With the obvious poverty on the reservation I suppose cell phones are not a big concern.
Poverty is NOT the reason you don't get cellphone service/coverage there, Min: as we speak, I am in phone and text contact with people doing a safari in the middle of Botswana. You can't get a poorer country than that. The Navajo are filthily rich, compared to them. Yet, my friends see local tribesmen, hunters that are hunting, on foot, right in the middle of the bush/veld, busily evading predators and stalking antelope, while phoning home with a mobile phone...! Every day! Dozens of times!
So poverty is definitely NOT the reason you don't get cellphone service/coverage in the Navajo reservation. It must be something else.
Last edited by Rokcet Scientist on Fri Jun 01, 2007 5:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
In an emerging nation with little infrastructure, cellphone towers and trasmitter/repeaters are far cheaper to erect and maintain than thousands of miles of poles and wires. Here, the hardwired infrastructure is in place so in general the landline service is cheaper. This means there is less financial incentive to pepper our country with towers.
Forum Monk wrote:
In an emerging nation with little infrastructure, cellphone towers and trasmitter/repeaters are far cheaper to erect and maintain than thousands of miles of poles and wires.
It also requires considerably less hard work, which is of overriding importance to some people...
Here, the hardwired infrastructure is in place so in general the landline service is cheaper. This means there is less financial incentive to pepper our country with towers.
Alternative:
with 'cantennas' for repeaters – at 2 bucks each per 10 miles – you can have WiFi/internet anywhere in the bush. Thus you can have VOIP anywhere as well!
They do it in South Africa and India, and everybody's very happy with it. They can now have internet in the smallest rural mud brick hamlets.
This development makes it possible for YOU and ME to help those people with our knowledge and advice from behind our computers:
If you ever saw the Navajo reservation or the area surrounding it you would know how astonishingly underpopulated it is. There can't be a major cost/benefit ratio to the cell phone companies to expand into an area where so few people live. One can literally drive for miles between dwellings. The vastness of the area is mind boggling.
It is also impossible to get a cell signal at the Grand Canyon itself. I suspect that the National Park Service simply will not allow towers to be built.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Minimalist wrote:
It is also impossible to get a cell signal at the Grand Canyon itself. I suspect that the National Park Service simply will not allow towers to be built.
'Build' yourself a 2 buck cantenna and you can pick up dozens of signals at the Grand Canyon (up on the rim of course, not down below).
No towers required.
Too much trouble to talk to some asshole that I probably don't want to talk to in the first place.
Standing on the rim, looking down into the canyon is a humbling experience. Why ruin it with cell phone blather?
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
