[BCVHFA] Fwd: BPL in today's Cincinati Daily Newspaper

[K8CM]

>
>Greetings
>           This is how the FCC decision played out on page one of the 
> Business Section in the Cincinnati Enquirer this morning. It is a 
> coincidence but one of our local clubs tonight (Mason ARC) has BPL as its 
> main agenda. Representatives of the Cincinnati BPL/LIC team will be there 
> to report. Director Jim Weaver, K8JE, and I are also on the agenda. The 
> message is a simple one right now - despite a big story today and many 
> months of supposed Cinergy activity - a big BPL buildout just is not 
> happening because next to no one subscribes. However the potential is 
> certainly there and constant monitoring and measurements are required. 
> That's it: the message is for everyone to keep cool. This is the main 
> reason why my remarks, quoted at the end of the story, were measured ones.
>
>Joe Phillips, K8QOE
>
>Friday, October 15, 2004
>FCC ruling aids Cinergy roll-out
>
>Firm's high-speed Internet over electric lines may accelerate
>
>
>By Mike Boyer
>Enquirer staff writer
>
>A partner in Cinergy Corp.'s roll-out of high-speed Internet access over 
>its electric lines locally hailed a government agency's decision Thursday 
>as a watershed for the emerging broadband-over-powerline (BPL) industry.
>The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to facilitate the 
>technology, addressing potential interference problems.
>Specifically, the FCC said the rules would avoid interference with public 
>safety providers and licensed radio users.
>Broadband-over-powerline will be excluded from some frequency bands, and 
>providers must notify safety authorities prior to deployment, the FCC 
>said. It also ordered creation of a public database to monitor interference.
>"This will spur a national buildout of BPL," said Kevin Kushman, chief 
>financial officer at Current Communications Group, the Germantown, Md., 
>provider that teamed up with Cinergy in March to launch the broadband 
>service in the Hyde Park-Mount Lookout area.
>Current isn't disclosing how many customers it has in Cincinnati, but 
>Kushman said the service passes 20,000 homes and expects to pass 50,000 by 
>year's end.
>Besides launching residential service here, Current and Cinergy are 
>marketing broadband-over-powerline to small municipal and cooperatively 
>owned utilities across the United States.
>Kushman said the FCC decision Thursday will also accelerate the rollout here.
>Joe Phillips of Fairfield, section manager for the American Radio Relay 
>League, the ham radio operators group, said the group remains concerned 
>that widespread use of BPL will cause interference for both licensed and 
>unlicensed radio operators. Kushman said there is no record of 
>interference from use of Current's technology.
>E-mail<mailto:mboyer at enquirer.com> mboyer at enquirer.com
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