[Swprograms] OT: FCC BPL Meeting

[Joe Buch <joseph.buch@xxxxxxx>]

I just got back after a two week jaunt to Mr. Figliozzi's ancestral homeland.  The wine was great, the women are beautiful, and the cars really go fast.  I do not know whether this has been posted anywhere in the SWL community but it looks like the rules for BPL in the USA will be coming in October.  Here is the ARRL's take on the issue from last Friday's Newsletter:

==>FCC POISED TO ACT ON BPL REPORT AND ORDER IN MID-OCTOBER

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) will present a draft
broadband over power line (BPL) Report and Order to the full Commission
when it meets October 14, the ARRL has learned. More than 6100 comments
have been filed on the topic since the FCC released its initial Notice of
Inquiry in the proceeding, ET Docket 03-104, in April 2003 and a
subsequent Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), ET Docket 04-37, in
February of this year. The ARRL so far on this round has taken its
concerns regarding Amateur Radio and BPL to three of the Commission's five
members. In a meeting this week with FCC Commissioner Jonathan S.
Adelstein, an ARRL delegation again asserted that the FCC is pushing the
proceeding to a predetermined conclusion with little regard for technical
issues.

"Because the FCC has been unwilling to release for public review the
results of its own tests and observations of BPL systems, the ARRL has no
confidence that the draft Report and Order will be based on sound
engineering and believes the rush to adoption is unwarranted and
premature," ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, said in a
follow-up letter to Adelstein. The letter reiterated the League's key
points that, it said, "represent the minimum protection" that should be
incorporated into the BPL Report and Order prior to Commission adoption.

"Without adequate safeguards, the deployment of BPL systems will result in
the pollution and degradation of the unique natural resource of the
high-frequency radio spectrum," Sumner said.

The League argued that the R&O include a reduction in the radiated
emission limit. The ARRL wants the limit set 30 dB below current Part 15
requirements, which, it says, were established with narrowband
point-source radiators in mind. "The record in this proceeding clearly
establishes that BPL is not a point-source radiator," the ARRL's letter
asserted.

The ARRL pointed out that the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) has concluded that at the current Part 15 limit,
interference is "likely" to receivers in land vehicles 75 meters from
BPL-connected power lines and to fixed stations 460 meters from such power
lines.

"Given the number of amateur stations and the fact that they almost
invariably are located near power lines, the areas of potential
interference at the existing Part 15 limit are clearly too large to permit
case-by-case resolution of interference issues," Sumner said. "Based on
experience with the very limited test deployments of BPL systems to date,
notably in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Southern Wake County, North Carolina, and
Cottonwood, Arizona," the ARRL told Adelstein, "widespread BPL deployment
at the existing Part 15 radiated emission limit will result in an
unmanageable incidence of interference."

The only way to reduce these areas of potential interference is to reduce
the radiated emission limit, the ARRL maintained. Mandatory "notching" of
the amateur bands by 30 dB would reduce the probability of interference to
amateur stations sufficiently that the remaining interference cases might
be resolved on a case-by-case basis. "However," the League added, "such
notching would not solve the problem for other radio services."

The ARRL contingent, which included Sumner, ARRL General Counsel Chris
Imlay, W3KD, and ARRL Chief Technology Officer Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, decried
the FCC's lack of response to issues Sumner raised two months ago
regarding a North Carolina Amateur Radio interference complaint. The ARRL
representatives carried copies of correspondence questioning a July OET
report that essentially gave the Progress Energy Corp BPL field trial a
clean bill of health despite continued interference on amateur
frequencies.

The League delegation suggested to Adelstein that the OET has swept the
North Carolina BPL interference case under the rug and has attempted to
discount interference issues in general while overstating the FCC's
ability to address them.

Other points the ARRL has stressed in its meetings with Commission members
include:

* consider including the NTIA's recommendations to standardize measurement
procedures and to require that Access BPL systems be certificated, not
merely verified.

* requiring independent confirmation of rules compliance before a BPL
system is placed in operation.

* the need for advance public notification of BPL system locations and
characteristics, something not included in the NPRM

* performance standards for interference mitigation that would require
that interference be terminated immediately upon notification to the
operator; and meaningful penalties for non-compliance, including fines.

* require BPL marketers to "give clear notice to potential customers that
licensed radio services have priority and that the delivery of broadband
service via BPL cannot be guaranteed."

In addition to Adelstein, ARRL representatives have met so far with
Commissioners Kevin J. Martin, and Michael J. Copps. The League hopes to
meet with the principal advisors to Chairman Michael K. Powell and
Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy before the October 7 cutoff for ex
parte communications in the proceeding.


~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,
Joe Buch
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