Marty, having 200,000 to 400,000 BPL customers in 2007 as a citable statistic in a federal report is not a moot issue. We raised it when the report was issued, but that was the previous administration and there wasn’t much chance of getting them to admit error. Now we have another shot.

The interesting thing is that the NTIA didn’t accept the FCC’s well documented figure. In other words, the FCC was right and NTIA was wrong. But now, having been in charge at NTIA when NTIA was wrong, she’s been nominated to the FCC by the new administration. Is sh e going to bring the practices of the previous administration with her to the FCC? It’s a legitimate question to raise. I don’t think any interest group would pass up the opportunity to raise it.

Dave

From: Marty Woll [mailto:n6vi@socal.rr.com]
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 10:19 AM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [arrl-odv:17876] Re: Baker FCC nomination

Since "bad" BPL seems to be fizzling out of its own a ccord, would this be a case of winning the battle but losing the war? Is trying to extract an admission of wrongdoing on what may now be a moot issue worth the cost of "doing business" going forward before a commissioner whose personal ethics you have publicly challenged? If we think we have a basis for preventing her appointment and a reasonable chance to do so, that's another matter, but that's not what I was hearing.

73,

Marty N6VI

----- Original Message -----

From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ

To: arrl-odv

Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 6:20 AM

Subject: [arrl-odv:17873] Baker FCC nomination

With the announcement of President Obama’s intent to nominate Meredith Attwell Baker to the FCC we may have some leverage to address the seriously flawed NTIA report that was issued on her watch as Acting Administrator of the NTIA, and that has never been corrected.

After consulting with President Harrison I have drafted the following statement and am accompanying it with the supporting documentation.

Dave K1ZZ

We have serious concerns regarding the nomination of Meredith Attwell Baker as an FCC Commissioner.

While Ms. Baker was Acting Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information (NTIA), the NTIA released a deeply flawed report entitled Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007. The report seriously and inexcusably overstated the extent of deployment of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) as a means of delivering broadband services to consumers. Documented FCC figures showed there to be about 5,000 BPL customers nationwide, yet the NTIA dismissed this number out of hand and went on a fishing expedition for higher figures that it could quote in the range of 200,000 to 400,000 – utterly specious numbers without a shred of factual foundation.

The ARRL proved that these figures were taken out of thin air and twice called upon Acting Administrator Baker to issue a correction. Not only has the NTIA failed to do so to this day, our well documented complaints were not even acknowledged.

If her FCC nomination is to go forward, we believe that Ms. Baker first must acknowledge and correct this egregious error that occurred while she was in char ge at NTIA.

David Sumner, K1ZZ

Chief Executive Officer, ARRL

<<Baker NTIA.doc>> <<Networked Nation critique Rev 1.doc>> <<Baker NTIA1.doc>> <<NTIA Source Disavows Figure.doc>> <<qs0804.pdf>>