WISPAmerica 2019 Show Daily Day 2

4 WISPA merica 2019 I MARCH 19 - 21, 2019 www.bekabusinessmedia.com DAY 2 (Voices story, continued from page 1) capital-intensive businesses in the world,” Aiken explained. “And they lobby hard.” AT&T alone spent $18 million last year on lobbying in Washington; Verizon spent $12 million. Over in the broadcast industry, the National Association of Broadcasters spent $14 million, among the dollars spent by many other broadcast players, while Boeing and Lockheed Martin led the defense indus- try’s lobbying efforts on the Hill, spending a combined $28 million. That doesn’t even include spending by transportation and consumer appliance players. So how does WISP money compare? Well, WISPA spent less than 0.2 percent of just the mobile and broadcast industries combined. Despite this deficit, WISPA is still “knocking down doors and punching above its weight,” in Washington, said Aiken. With the help of recently added advocacy staff, Aiken and WISPA contractors during the past year have held hundreds of meetings with policymakers, made more than 50 agency filings, participated in several conferences and met with count- less media properties and advocacy groups. In turn, Aiken was given the chance to testify in front of the U.S. House of Representatives on the economics to connect and grow America through broadband. “There we urged lawmakers that the task could be accomplished more quickly and cost- effectively through fixed wireless – through WISPs,” said Aiken. The efforts also led to recent visits to WISPA members by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr, who both got first- hand looks at how WISPs are efficiently and affordably connecting customers to high-speed broadband through fixed wireless. That includes a visit by Commissioner Carr yesterday to WISP member Amplex in northwestern Ohio on his way to Cincinnati and WISPAMERICA. This progress notwithstanding, there is still much work to be done and battles that must be fought, said Aiken, and a key to victory moving forward are the individual voices and stories of WISPA members. While the major mobile providers have buckets of lobbying money and slick marketing campaigns to make their cases, WISPs have some things they don’t: personal connections to customers and communities and unique stories about successfully connecting the underserved to high-speed broadband. “Unlike ‘Big Mobile,’ you reside and employ people in your communities; you are Congress’s constituents – the ones they ulti- mately report to,” said Aiken. “You make this personal, and that alone can change outcomes in amazing ways.” That doesn’t mean WISPs need to move to D.C., continued Aiken. One quick and easy way to get involved is to text “WISPA” to 50457 to get a link to WISPA’s advocacy tool and get started communicating with your representatives. “We need champions to emerge from this group that we have here, and we will help you tell your fixed wireless stories to policymakers,” said Aiken. “It’s a proven gamechanger – a key piece to getting our message out and understood.” In short, Aiken believes the individual and collective voices of WISPs can help WISPA overcome the lobbying disparity between WISPA and the mobile industry. There is a saying in Washington, concluded Aiken. “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu, and we are finally getting our seat at the table,” he said. “We want you to join us at the table.” m Aiken discusses the successes and challenges of WISPA in Washington. WISPAMERICA by the Numbers WISPA proudly hosts another record breaking WISPAMERICA event, hosting more than 1,020 attendees representing 480 WISP companies coming to the Queen City. Nearly half of those companies, meanwhile, brought more than one employee to Cincinnati for the show. The expo floor was also the biggest it’s ever been for a WISPAMERICA, with 99 vendors exhibiting their products and services. The event also included nearly 50 educational sessions. (See page 8 of the “Show Daily” to see the sessions scheduled for today and Thursday.) And while WISPAMERICA welcomes many first-time attendees to the show, WISPA is still looking for that first WISP attendee from the state of Rhode Island. If anyone knows a WISP in Rhode Island, Nathan Stooke, CEO of Wisper Internet and Chairman of the WISPA Board of Directors, offered to pick up their airfare in order to get them to the next WISPA event. All told, according to Stooke, there are about 2,000 WISPs in the U.S., serving nearly 4 million customers. WISPA’s membership currently sits at about 800 members, so if you know a WISP in your state that is not a member, be sure to inform them of the important work WISPA does for its members, as well as all the other WISPs across the country. m