- As some of you may recall, on June 26th I posted the
following message:
-
- << I just received an E-Mail message from a consumer
activist in Kansas who heard a report on the radio this morning that a
number of cellular phone towers in western Kansas and Oklahoma have been
forced to shut down because they were operating at a greater power than
the FCC allows. It appears that their transmissions were interfering with
airplanes.....Is there anybody out in middle America who has any additional
information on this? If so, please pass it along to me.>>
-
- I passed the message along to Ms. Bert Dumpe of ERGOTEC
in Washington, D.C. as well, and asked if she could get any additional
details. Just yesterday evening, Bert faxed to me two news articles from
the Kansas City Star (one from June 25th and the other a follow up on July
3rd) that reported that inteference from wireless communication products
and facilities (sited were cellular telephones, cellular phone towers,
radio broadcast facilities, pager equipment, cable television and even
powerlines) were causing severe interference and interrupting communication
with aircraft forcing the rerouting of aircraft covering 185,000 square
miles in Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana,
Colorado, New Mexico and parts of Texas.
-
- The FAA deployed special planes designed to track interference
and found the offending sources and forced them to terminate transmission.
-
- The June 26th article reports that this is typical of
an increasing problem that both the FAA and the FCC are concerned with
advising "The public's desire to be in constant contact with others
is intruding on the radio communications that the airline industry depends
on, and it is potentially compromising safety."
-
- Inside sources at the FAA advise that this is NOT a isolated
incident and that with the build out of the wireless infrastracture, it
is happening more often than not.
-
- Although I will not argue that cellular telephones are
not convenient - when will the wireless industry take a moment to see how
it is irrevocably altering our environment and that the continued unsafe
siting of wireless communication facilties could have deadly consequences?
Will this happen before or after planes begin to fall from the sky? Sometimes
it makes sense to put common sense before technology. Just because we CAN
do something, doesn't necessarily mean that we SHOULD. Just because we
CAN order pizza while in our car on the way home from work - doesn't mean
we should jeopardize the safety of the American public, not only on the
ground - but in the air as well.
-
- That's my morning diatribe - thought it would provide
a brief respite from the NCI shinanigans....
-
- Sincerely,
Cathy Bergman
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