[HCRA] BPL update

[Larry Krainson]

  *FCC Endorses Broadband Over Powerline *

By *W. David Gardner <mailto:wdavidg at earthlink.net>, */TechWeb News/
Fri. November 03, 2006

The Federal Communications 
<http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=Communications&x=&y=> 
Commission on Friday gave a big boost to Broadband 
<http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=Broadband&x=&y=> 
over Powerline (BPL), classifying the technology as an "information 
service."

The declaration places BPL-enabled access services on equal footing with 
cable 
<http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=cable&x=&y=> 
modem 
<http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=modem&x=&y=> 
and DSL 
<http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=DSL&x=&y=> 
Internet access services. The FCC has campaigned for BPL approval for 
years, although ham radio operators have long complained that BPL would 
interfere <http://www.techweb.com/wire/networking/191800584> with its 
service.

By ruling BPL service's transmission component is "telecommunications," 
and an "information service," BPL will find it easier to deploy beyond 
the handful of networks that are currently scattered around the country, 
mostly in the Northeast.

"The Commission's broadband statistics show that subscribers to BPL 
Internet access services, although few in number overall, increased by 
nearly 200 percent in 2005," said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who has 
been a supporter of the technology. "By finding that BPL Internet access 
services are information services, the Commission provides the 
regulatory certainty necessary to foster competition between different 
broadband platform 
<http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=platform&x=&y=> 
providers."