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Division ARRL; http://www.arrl.org/
5065 Bethany Rd., Mason,
OH 45040
Tel.: 513-459-0142;
E-mail: k8je@arrl.org
ARRL:
The reason Amateur Radio Is!
MEMBERS:
The reason ARRL Is!
-----Original Message-----
From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ
[mailto:dsumner@arrl.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005
2:55 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [ARRL-ODV:11820] USDA
Rural Utilities Service on BPL
Last summer it came to our attention that the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Community Connect Grant
Program was soliciting grant applications to bring broadband service to rural
communities. I wrote a letter to Administrator Hilda Gay Legg (copy attached)
accompanied by a copy of the Cedar Rapids test report prepared by Director
Walstrom and his colleagues. As you can see, I stressed the fact that a sound
business plan for BPL must allow for significant potential costs of interference
mitigation.
A couple of months later I received a phone call from
Ed Cameron, Director of the RUS Advanced Services Division. He said I would
eventually be receiving a letter in reply, but there were things he could tell
me over the phone that he couldn't put in a letter.
Ed told me that he was a EE and was well aware of the
BPL interference issues, including its potential contribution to rising noise
floors in telephone lines strung along the same rights of way as the power
lines. He said he had detected little interest in BPL among the 900 electric
cooperatives that receive USDA funding, and that in fact they had received no
Community Connect applications proposing BPL. However, he offered to share my
letter with his colleagues who handle the Broadband Loan Program. Unlike the
Grant Program, the Loan Program is concerned about the ability of the recipient
to pay back the loan, and therefore the potential costs of interference
mitigation could be a significant factor.
Today I received a letter in reply to mine. Note the
sentence: "Whenever a loan or grant application proposes broadbvand
service delivery via BPL, we will consider the cost of interference mitigation
in our financial analysis."
It's a small but possibly important victory.
Dave K1ZZ
<<usda.doc>>
<<usda.pdf>>