[TowerTalk] RE: More on President Bush's Speech

[Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ]

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 at starpower.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:30 AM
To: Tower Talk Mailing List; rfi at 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 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.)