The official ARRL response, sent yesterday with the attachment, is below.
We'll be launching a grassroots campaign later today.
Dave K1ZZ
ARRL - The National Association for Amateur Radio
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
(860) 594-0200
April 26, 2004
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Via FAX (202) 456-2461
Dear Mr. President:
Today you said: "There needs to be technical standards to make possible new
broadband technologies, such as the use of high-speed communication directly
over power lines. Power lines were for electricity; power lines can be used for
broadband technology. So the technical standards need to be changed to
encourage that."
This is the wrong direction for your administration to take. While everyone is
of course supportive of bringing broadband services to more consumers at lower
cost, broadband over power lines is an inappropriate technology with far
greater disadvantages than advantages.
Power lines were designed to transmit energy. They were not designed to
transmit broadband signals, which in fact are radio-frequency signals. The
broadband signals radiate from power lines and cause severe interference to
radio reception. This has been shown time and time again at test sites
throughout this country and overseas. You may have been told otherwise; if so,
you were misinformed. Your staff can check this at our Web site,
www.arrl.org/bpl < http://www.arrl.org/bpl>.
The existing technical standards for broadband over power lines are already too
permissive. The FCC has proposed to tighten them by requiring certain
mitigation procedures in the event of interference, but has not gone nearly far
enough to protect the interests of radio communications services, including
police, fire, and EMT "first responders," as well as radio amateurs, short wave
listeners, and many other users of the radio spectrum. I am enclosing a
two-page explanation of our concerns.
Please withdraw your support for broadband over power lines and focus your
administration's attention on more suitable technologies, such as Broadband
Wireless Access. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jim Haynie, W5JBP
President, ARRL
3226 Newcastle Dr.
Dallas, TX 75220-1640
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Rosenberg [mailto:wd3q@starpower.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:30 AM
To: Tower Talk Mailing List; rfi@contesting.com; PVRC Reflector
Cc: Talens, Jim N3JT; Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ
Subject: More on President Bush's Speech
A companion document, "A NEW GENERATION OF AMERICAN INNOVATION" was released
along with the speech that did talk about BPL and spectrum.
See the second-to-last paragraph below, excerpted from the entire document,
which can be found at:
http
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/technology/economic_policy200404/innovation.pdf>
://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/technology/economic_policy200404/innovation.pdf
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/technology/economic_policy200404/innovation.pdf>
Promoting Innovation and Economic Security Through Broadband Technology
> The Administration has made unprecedented strides in balancing the commercial
> spectrum needs of
critical government agencies (including Department of Defense, Department of
Transportation, and
Department of Homeland Security) and commercial interests. The Administration
has identified 90 MHz of
spectrum to be auctioned for next generation wireless services.
o Currently only one wireless carrier is offering wireless broadband. Once the
90 MHz is auctioned, multiple
wireless carriers will have the opportunity to become broadband carriers
stimulating vigorous competition
and bringing lower prices and improved services to consumers.
o The Administration has nearly doubled the amount of spectrum available for
innovative wireless broadband
applications such as Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. These technologies can provide a range
of new services from
granting consumers broadband access in restaurants, airports and other public
places, to providing an
economically viable solution for providing broadband services in rural areas.
o To ensure these technologies continue to develop, the Department of
Commerce's National Institute of
Standards and Technology is chairing the Wi-Max standard setting body.
o To build on this record of success, the President has launched an initiative
to create a Spectrum Policy for
the 21st Century. The Department of Commerce is scheduled to deliver a report
to the President this
summer on how to improve spectrum management.
> The Administration is working to enable the rollout of broadband technology.
> The Department of
Commerce is developing the technical specifications necessary to enable the
widespread and responsible
deployment of broadband over powerlines (BPL). Having conducted 10 million
measurements of BPL systems,
the Department of Commerce will be able to chart the clear technical path
forward for BPL to coexist with other
critical uses of spectrum. Once deployed, BPL has the potential to turn every
electrical outlet into a broadband
pipeline.
> The President supports investment in research and development and has
> proposed the largest Federal
R&D budget in history, $132 billion in Fiscal Year 2005. Federal research and
development help lay the
foundation for advances in broadband technologies. In FY 2005, the National
Information Technology Research
and Development (NITRD) program is budgeted for $2.0 billion and includes
research directly related to
broadband technology. The President proposed making permanent the Research and
Experimentation Tax
Credit, which promotes private sector investment in new technologies such as
broadband.
-------------
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:06:58 -0400
To: towertalk@contesting.com
From: Eric Rosenberg <wd3q@starpower.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] BPL: Presidential Backing
>From the President's speech:
"Secondly, a proper role for the government is to clear regulatory hurdles so
those who are going to make investments do so. Broadband is going to spread
because it's going to make sense for private sector companies to spread it so
long as the regulatory burden is reduced -- in other words, so long as policy
at the government level encourages people to invest, not discourages
investment.
"And so here are some smart things to do: One, increase access to federal land
for fiberoptic cables and transmission towers. That makes sense. As you're
trying to get broadband spread throughout the company, make sure it's easy to
build across federal lands. One sure way to hold things up is that the federal
lands say, you can't build on us. So how is some guy in remote Wyoming going to
get any broadband technology? Regulatory policy has got to be wise and smart as
we encourage the spread of this important technology. There needs to be
technical standards to make possible new broadband technologies, such as the
use of high-speed communication directly over power lines. Power lines were for
electricity; power lines can be used for broadband technology. So the technical
standards need to be changed to encourage that.
"And we need to open up more federally controlled wireless spectrum to auction
in free public use, to make wireless broadband more accessible, reliable, and
affordable. Listen, one of the technologies that's coming is wireless. And if
you're living out in -- I should -- I was going to say Crawford, Texas, but
it's not -- maybe not nearly as remote. (Laughter.) How about Terlingua, Texas?
There's not a lot of wires out there. But wireless technology is going to
change all that so long as government policy makes sense.
"And we're going to continue to support the Federal Communications Commission.
Michael Powell -- Chairman Michael Powell, under his leadership, his decision
to eliminate burdensome regulations on new broadband networks availability to
homes. In other words, clearing out the underbrush of regulation, and we'll get
the spread of broadband technology, and America will be better for it.
(Applause.)
----
Eric W3DQ
Washington, DC
At 04:25 AM 4/27/2004 -0400, you wrote:
Message: 10
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:25:08 +0000
From: Chris Pedder <chris@g3vbl.co.uk>
Subject: [TowerTalk] BPL: Presidential Backing
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20040427082158.01d6a048@mail.plus.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Yesterday, during a speech in Minneapolis, President Bush appeared to give
his backing to BPL.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040426-6.html
Chris G3VBL
(Five or six paragraphs from the end.)
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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