[EIDXA] Contact the White House

[Jim Spencer]

>From www.arrl.org:

ARRL Calls on White House to Withdraw Support for BPL

NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 27, 2004--The ARRL has appealed to President George W.
Bush to withdraw his support for broadband over power line (BPL) technology
and focus his administration's attention on "more suitable technologies"
such as wireless broadband access. The League also has issued a call for
members to support Haynie's request. Bush, in an April 26 speech at the
Minneapolis convention of the American Association of Community Colleges,
advocated changing technical standards to encourage BPL deployment in the
US. Speaking on behalf of ARRL's membership, President Jim Haynie, W5JBP,
told Bush that while the League supports universal and affordable broadband
access, BPL is the wrong direction to take.

"Power lines were designed to transmit energy," Haynie said in a fax to the
White House. "They were not designed to transmit broadband signals, which
are, in fact, radio frequency signals. The broadband signals radiate from
power lines and cause severe interference to radio reception."

Haynie said test sites throughout the US and elsewhere have amply
demonstrated BPL's potential to interfere. "You may have been told
otherwise; if so, you were misinformed," Haynie said, directing the
president's attention to the BPL page on the ARRL Web site.

Bush, in his speech, told the community colleges gathering that there need
to be technical standards to enable new broadband technologies such as
high-speed communication over power lines. "Power lines were for
electricity; power lines can be used for broadband technology," Bush said.
"So the technical standards need to be changed to encourage that."

The president's comments reflect the current White House technology agenda.
The policy, spelled out in "A New Generation of American Innovation,"
includes an apparent reference to a not-yet-released study by the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of the
US Department of Commerce. The NTIA's BPL study was due for public release
this month.

"The Department of Commerce is developing the technical specifications
necessary to enable the widespread and responsible deployment of broadband
over powerlines (BPL)," the White House policy states. "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."

In his Minneapolis speech, Bush suggested that BPL could offer a means to
supply broadband services to rural dwellers, a prospect that the League and
others claim is not economically feasible.

"BPL is sometimes touted as a solution for rural areas," said ARRL CEO David
Sumner, K1ZZ. "It is not." Sumner explained that BPL signals carry only a
few thousand feet down a power line and then must be repeated. "This
requires a lot of hardware and will not be economical in areas with low
population densities."

President Bush in his speech also expressed his administration's continued
support for the FCC under the chairmanship of Michael Powell and "his
decision to eliminate burdensome regulations on new broadband networks'
availability to homes." He also called for opening up more spectrum to make
wireless broadband "more accessible, reliable and affordable" and for no
taxes on broadband access.

In its BPL Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in ET Docket 04-37, the FCC
has proposed amending its Part 15 rules to adopt new requirements and
measurement guidelines for so-called "Access BPL" systems. The comment
deadline is May 3; reply comments are due by June 1.

Haynie said that the ARRL supports bringing broadband service to Americans
at lower cost, but BPL is "an inappropriate technology with far greater
disadvantages than advantages."

A Call to Arms

In direct response to the Bush speech, the ARRL is asking its members to
support Haynie's request for the White House to withdraw its support for BPL
technology. "Using power lines to distribute broadband services is a bad
idea that should not be encouraged," said Sumner. "Federally licensed
Amateur Radio operators need to tell him so--and also need to enlist their
Members of Congress in reversing this bad administration policy. It is
important for radio amateurs to get the facts across to the White House as
well as to our Congressional representatives and senators."

The ARRL Web site provides an information package explaining how members can
contact the White House and members of Congress to express their views on
BPL deployment and why they need to do so.

"Do it now!" Sumner urges in his call to arms. "We need thousands of
responses from all parts of the country, right away, if we are to make an
impression."

For additional information, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and
Amateur Radio" page on the ARRL Web site. To support the League's efforts in
this area, visit the ARRL's secure BPL Web site.