As part of the last NTIA conference call this last Tuesday, Scott Deutchman, acting senior legal advisor to Chairman Copps of the FCC issued the following statement (see below): I think on behalf of WISPA and other WISP's this is a good opportunity for all of us to voice our concern over the lack of new spectrum. Although the Stimulus plan is not naming technologies we ALL know that in rural and underserved areas that wireless will be the only cost effective way to distribute broadband. So I believe that if a lot of us file comments with the FCC maybe, (and I do mean MAYBE) someone will take notice and help us all find new spectrum for our next-generation wireless networks moving forward.
Thus, I believe we should all file comments in support of new spectrum allocations. The FCC website public comment site is: HYPERLINK "http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/"http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/ When you file you need to reference proceeding 09-29. You can submit a word, pdf, or text document or just submit your comments directly. The deadline is March 25th. There is a LOT of pressure from the President's administration for cooperation between the NTIA, USDA, and the FCC to make this Stimulus work. Regardless of how you feel about this program it's a good opportunity to inform the commission of how serious the lack of spectrum is in our industry. We don't have paid lobyist to do our work so we have to make our needs known ourselves. Ready to do some typing? Todd As chairman Copps outlined, we view this as comprehensive effort that will seek input from many quarters. The private, government agencies, and we'll be looking at a cross-section of issues, health care, cyber security, energy, and many others. We will also be starting -- we will also be reporting, excuse me, on the progress, and I expect the successes of the down payment that these broadband projects being started will achieve. We plan to rely on a wealth of data including better, more useful broadband maps. The commission, separate from the broadband plan, which we expect to kick off at our April meeting on the 8th, the Commission released a notice this morning in coordination with the Department of Agriculture, the chairman of the FCC must provide Congress with a report on a rural broadband strategy by May 22nd. May 22nd of this year, which does not give us much time. So we've released a public notice seeking comment today. The report is supposed to include recommen dations on promoting interagency coordination of broadband policies and rural broadband initiatives. We're seeking comment on how best to achieve this and I would expect the report will be one of the building blocks for the larger national broadband plan. Thus, I encourage everybody to participate and to make comments. The notice is now on our web site, the document number, it's up on the web, GN 0929 is the web number. Comments are due by March 25th, given the short time period. In addition to this report and the national broadband plan that we'll be working on, the Commission has a key role to play in supporting NTIA and the Department of Agriculture in their broadband grant and loan programs. We will be working closely with them to provide substantive expertise on the implications of important definitions relevant to their process such as the definition of unserved and underserved areas, on broadband and the like. We also will be providing our counsel on key questions regarding network interconnection and nondiscrimination obligations as they relate to the grants. Todd Brandenburg President PocketiNet Communications, Inc. 509-593-4706 direct No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.10/1994 - Release Date: 03/10/09 19:51 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
