[TowerTalk] More on President Bush's Speech

Tue Apr 27 09:30:13 EDT 2004

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://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 at contesting.com
>From: Eric Rosenberg <wd3q at 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 at g3vbl.co.uk>
>>Subject: [TowerTalk] BPL: Presidential Backing
>>To: towertalk at contesting.com
>>Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20040427082158.01d6a048 at 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.)