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

To: "Eric Rosenberg" <wd3q@starpower.net>,"Tower Talk Mailing List" <towertalk@contesting.com>,<rfi@contesting.com>, "PVRC Reflector" <pvrc@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [TowerTalk] RE: More on President Bush's Speech
From: "Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ" <dsumner@arrl.org>
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:35:17 -0400
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
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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