I am passing this along from MAIN.nc.us an organization involved with providing broadband access to rural areas in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
Dear Friends: The TV broadcasters are mounting a furious campaign to block the FCC vote next week on unlicensed use of the "white spaces" spectrum to solve the rural broadband problem. WE NEED YOUR HELP!! If the broadcasters succeed in blocking the FCC vote, now scheduled for Nov. 4, this issue is kicked to the new FCC under a new administration -- and the process starts all over again! The broadcasters have delayed this rulemaking for almost SIX YEARS! We can't let them delay a rural broadband solution any longer! The FCC's engineers reviewed the wireless technology and recommended approval for unlicensed use of the "white spaces" for rural broadband. This is not rocket science. The following link, for those of you with a technical bent, amply shows the how cautious the FCC was in its technical review. http://main.nc.us/whitespaces/files/good-enough-for-the-pentagon.pdf This isn't about technology. It's about the broadcasters protecting their turf -- our public airwaves. Since 1934, radio and TV broadcasters have had free use of the public airwaves. And now that we, the public, want to use our own airwaves to solve the rural broadband problem, the broadcasters go ballistic! These huge broadcast companies are the creation of Wall Street, and the same corruption and greed that we have seen with the financial meltdown is furiously at work today on Capitol Hill. Please email and call each Commissioner of the FCC below. Thank them for their due diligence, and request that they NOT cave-in to the broadcasters' political muscle. LET THE FCC VOTE!! Please email and call. Please email: Chairman Kevin J. Martin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (202) 418-1000 Commissioner Michael J. Copps: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (202) 418-2000 Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (202) 418-2300 Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (202) 418-2500 Commissioner Robert McDowell: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (202) 418-2200 Also, you can find out more about this issue at: http://www.main.nc.us/whitespaces We can win this, and solve our rural broadband problem!! Wally Bowen Executive Director Mountain Area Information Network 34 Wall Street, Suite 407 Asheville, NC 28801 local: 828-255-0182 ext 109 tollfree: 866-962-6246 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Central West End Linux Users Group (via Google Groups) Main page: http://www.cwelug.org To post: [email protected] To subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] More options: http://groups.google.com/group/cwelug -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
