A a most eloquent commentary on our freedoms and this issue:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:4SSgByu12bQJ:www.grundigradio.com...This is the html version of the file
http://www.grundigradio.com/bpl/FCCBPLcomments.pdf .
Etón Corporation
Comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s
Broadband-Over-Powerline Policy
November 14, 2003
Recently the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began the process of changing the regulations that govern radio frequency interference. These changes are aimed at paving the way for the FCC to introduce a new technology known as broadband-over-powerline (BPL).
According to the FCC, BPL would bring broadband to “previously unserved communities” and be the catalyst for a “robustly competitive and diversified marketplace” that would lead to a “broadband Nirvana” in America.* While its proposal may be well intentioned, the FCC’s support
of this emerging technology threatens the existence of an established technology – Shortwave radio. Shortwave radio technology, though not as cutting-edge and as commercialized as BPL, is important to America because it represents our most basic freedoms guaranteed by the First
Amendment.
BPL technology is based on using 2-80 MHz of the radio frequency spectrum to transmit data over existing powerlines. According to the latest research done by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), BPL threatens to create so
much “noise” in this frequency range that Shortwave radio, the original operator in this frequency spectrum, would be effectively drowned out. Without any proposed plans or remedies by the FCC to safeguard Shortwave broadcasting, BPL poses a real and imminent threat to this
medium.
To the majority of Americans who have never listened to worldband radio, the loss of Shortwave may appear to be acceptable compared to the benefits of faster and expanded internet services.
But to Shortwave enthusiasts and radio users, Shortwave is indispensable for its ability to transmit international broadcasts from around the world. On the surface, this may appear to be
only marginally valuable in this day and age of 24/7 news channels on television and internet access. Upon closer inspection however, Shortwave is markedly different from those other mediums and especially significant for its ability to broadcast news and information directly from other countries at no cost or low cost. As Americans, we have become accustomed to receiving our news in pre-packaged sound bites, selected and served by the mainstream media, biased opinions and perspectives mixed in. Shortwave allows its listeners to hear and its broadcasters to report news and information with a clarity and transparency unmatched by most domestic media.
Shortwave radio is in many ways the last of our untarnished resources. As Americans, we have always been taught and told that it is our freedom that makes us strong and separates us from everybody else. When it comes to news and information, our desire to have the freedom to
choose from a wide array of media and media channels is no different.
Shortwave radio represents a cost-effective and easily accessible means for all Americans to get global news straight from the source, a claim that no other technology can make. If this access was denied or
impeded in any way, and Americans left with less media choices or channels, then our right to freedom of the press would be unfairly and unacceptably compromised.
The FCC recently voted to allow media conglomerates the ability to increase their holdings in television stations and newspapers, another signal that fewer and fewer companies will end up controlling more and more of what we hear, see, and read. Ironically post 9/11, global news is more salient than ever. In today’s political climate, Americans are seeking international news, culture, and perspectives like never before in efforts to better understand the rest of the world.
We need more media choices to quench our thirst for information, not less. Shortwave is not just another vehicle, but arguably one of the best vehicles to bring the perspectives of foreign countries and cultures into our homes easily and inexpensively. At a time when the FCC seems content on letting BPL eclipse Shortwave, its value and significance is brighter than ever.
In fact, Shortwave’s value reaches beyond America’s shores to touch nearly every country in the world. Without a spectrum to operate from, even outbound American Shortwave programming that is currently accessible to millions and millions around the globe will be eerily silent. In short order, the global exchange of thoughts and ideas, the underlying premise of both radio and our right to free speech, will be brought to a screeching halt. To see the potential damage this can
have on the world, we only need to study history. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution paved the way for democracy as Communism fell in Czechoslovakia when Václav Havel was elected as President. Havel, a long-standing and outspoken critic of Communism, cited Voice of Free
Europe, a Shortwave institution, as one of his sources of strength and inspiration during his struggle for democracy. Though it may be hyperbole to attribute the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe to radio, it is clear that its reach is broad, and its influences deep. It would be a potential foreign policy failure for the United States if Shortwave radio disappeared. If the elixir of Shortwave could help just one country or even one community, then Shortwave’s existence would
be justified by helping bring hope and inspiration, and under the right circumstances, even democracy.
What the FCC is proposing with BPL is not so much poor technology as it is poorly planned technology. In its current form, the social costs of BPL exceed its social benefits. Ubiquitous broadband is a noble goal that FCC should have in its sights on. The issue here is to find a way
to apply this technology somewhere or somehow that does not impact Shortwave radio. Isn’t there bandwidth somewhere else in the radio frequency spectrum for BPL to occupy? Since 1994, the FCC has auctioned and sold off hundreds of frequencies for billions of dollars.
Granted, the United States government has generated significant revenue from these sales, but money cannot buy freedom. It is perplexing that the FCC, the landowner of the airwaves, cannot find a plot of frequency for BPL without encroaching the boundaries of Shortwave.
The FCC’s BPL proposal threatens to set this country down a slippery slope where new technology displaces existing technology without regard for its impacts on citizens and society. The FCC needs to find a way to promote BPL while preserving the freedoms of Americans.
Technology should be a tool for society to improve the lives of its people. If and when this promise is broken, then that technology needs to be reevaluated, rethought, or reapplied until it works properly.
* “Reaching Broadband Nirvana”, Kathleen Q. Abernathy, FCC Commissioner, United PowerLine
Council Annual Conference, September 22, 2003,
(
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-239079A1.doc )
PLEASE go to this thread for info on how to help....June 1 deadline for FCC comments....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1656514#
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