This discussion is Beehive CEO's - monthly column as found on the last page of Americas Network magazine. They have been printing his letters for nearly 20 years. This column will remain posted till he writes the next one. The Last Word..                                                September 1997 Hawaiian eye-opener A while back, the State of Hawaii passed legislation setting aside certain parcels of land for native Hawaiian folk to establish homes on land exclusively for native Hawaiians. Naturally, something of this magnitude doesn't just happen.   The personalities behind the creation of these new communities are listened to -- in all aspects of Hawaiian politics, business and culture. RUS funds are in the bag.  And it came as a real eye-opener when both GTE -- the traditional telephone company on the Hawaiian islands -- and the Hawaii Public Service Commission discovered that the homelands also intended to establish its own telephone company.  Long-time veteran Fred Stout (fstout@aloha.net) was hired to do just that.  He is. MEANWHILE... The highest building on the Pearl Harbor Navy installation is an apartment building for military personnel.  The switch is a leased 20-20 from Harris.  The facility came to be from the work of Bill Phillips of Denver; only problem is that the entire facility reportedly is operating under Chapter 11 protection because of conflicting opinions of where the alleged loot should be buried. The story is still unfolding, but the cast of characters includes the genius of Bill and folk in corporations like AT&T, Sprint and Harris.  The fun part was a BLUEREP from the Navy Admiral.  (The BLUEREP is a fleet-wide notice of a problem. The effect was to verbally tar and feather the industry dealing with telecommunications services in barracks.)  Admiral are not necessarily humored by things that don't work.  No excuses.  If they think there is no time for civilians to argue, then shove'em over the side and bring in a new crew. Notwithstanding the mucho loot to be earned from providing such services, it is interesting to read the court documents which provide insight to the bodies that get stepped on in the course of staking out new claims in our now competitive business.      I'll tell you more -- another time. TRI-STATE The local exchange telcos of Idaho, Utah and Wyoming hold a joint convention each year.  This year it was in Cody. Wyo.   Cody is way up north, outside the east gate of Yellowstone National Park.  Cody's 8,000 souls host tens of thousands of tourists each year.  The main attraction is the Buffalo Bill Western Museum. The curator of any museum would drool over the superior quality and size of the Buffalo Bill Western Museum building.  It has the everything from finest historical exhibits of American guns to artful displays and narration of Western history and art -- it is a must do for all, sometime in this life.  Plan to spend at least a full day. There's no lack of mature people-watchers who are delighted to answer questions.   And, they hand-stamp,  so you can get back in when hunger takes you out to some of the fast-food purveyors adjacent to the museum. Many of our Utah attendees to the convention thought to drive through Yellowstone on the way to Cody.  All reported toad construction and massive traffic jams, resulting in 10 to 13 hour trips.  Because of the mountains, no roads are direct in this area. Knowing this, we three Beehive guys motored up in the Cessna, taking just four minutes longer than Southwest Airlines' 737 over the same route. Besides gold (which I don't) and dinner (which I do.), the most crowded part was the two hours allocated to the sales guys who brought some of their wares.  I was impressed with a nice little $4,500 spread spectrum on 960 MHz that takes 56K to provide five subscriber telephone lines by air from point X to point Y. Now, if they'd only split the central office end transmitter from multiplexer so we could multiplex that over two pair to the CO from the radio, I'd buy several.  Not enough demand, they say. NOTE: Could someone please explain the competitive reason we have a $3 per month Federal Communications Commission mandated charge on wireline phones, and ZERO of cell phones? ** Copyright 1997 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved.   © 1997, 1998, 1999 Beehive Telephone Co.