[K3PZN-List] More on BPL

[Al Bisasky]

      White House Gives ARRL Delegation Assurances on BPL Interference Issue

NEWINGTON, CT, May 21, 2004--ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, headed an 
ARRL delegation during a May 20 White House visit to discuss concerns 
about broadband over power line (BPL). Haynie, ARRL General Counsel 
Chris Imlay, W3KD, and Chief Technology Officer Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, met 
with Richard Russell, the White House associate director for technology 
in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The ARRL officials asked 
the Bush administration to heed its own experts at the National 
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and back away 
from its support of BPL in favor of less troublesome broadband 
technologies. The NTIA's Phase 1 BPL study 
<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fccfilings/2004/bpl/index.html> 
acknowledged BPL as an interference source. Haynie said the meeting with 
Russell was both revealing and encouraging.

"He assured us that based on the NTIA report, the interference issues 
would be addressed," Haynie said. "That was one of our main purposes for 
being there." Haynie said, however, that he remains "absolutely" 
convinced that a political agenda is driving the BPL proceeding. The 
ARRL group also asked the White House to consider delaying a Report & 
Order in the BPL proceeding to allow time for stakeholders to review the 
soon-expected NTIA Phase 2 report. The White House would not commit to 
asking the FCC to do so, Haynie said.

Russell told the ARRL contingent that the administration is "very 
excited" about BPL--not only for its technological possibilities but for 
its potential to create new broadband competition. He said the 
administration is approaching BPL from a "can do" perspective and is 
committed to finding ways to make it work.

Imlay said the League's problems were not with broadband access--ARRL 
supports making broadband access more widely available, he said--but 
with the "rush-to-judgment" approach the FCC seems to be taking in the 
BPL proceeding. As one example, he cited the timing between the release 
of the extensive NTIA study and the comment deadline on the BPL 
proceeding just a few days later. The Commission denied requests from 
the ARRL and others to extend the comment deadline. While somewhat 
sympathetic, Russell suggested that his office was in less of a position 
to influence the FCC than it was the NTIA.

After Rinaldo presented some of the ARRL's BPL interference test 
findings, Russell questioned whether some BPL implementations were less 
intrusive than others. He asked the League to provide a breakdown of the 
BPL systems and providers manifesting both lesser and greater degrees of 
interference.

In addition, Rinaldo told Russell that representatives of the BPL 
industry have been double-talking their way around interference claims. 
Imlay pointed out that the FCC has yet to address dozens of BPL-related 
interference complaints from amateurs. Haynie also raised additional 
points regarding interference to public safety users, especially in more 
rural areas of the US, as well as to aviation interests.

The administration does not want a flawed technology to result from the 
BPL proceeding, Russell said at the session's conclusion, and he offered 
assurances to the League visitors that the NTIA would work to address 
the interference.

"We did get listened to," Haynie said afterward. "Did I leave there 
feeling euphoric? No, I didn't, but at least I have a better feeling now 
of the overall big picture, of where BPL's coming from, and I hope that 
I can take to the bank the fact that they're going to address and 
continue to address aggressively the interference issues."

Derek Riker, KB3JLF, of Chwat & Company, the ARRL's legislative 
relations consultant, arranged the meeting and accompanied the 
delegation on the White House visit.

The ARRL already has asked the FCC to put its BPL proceeding on hold to 
allow more thorough research of its interference potential to licensed 
radio services. The League contended in its comments in response to the 
FCC's February 23 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM 
<http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6515783486>) 
in ET Docket 03-47 that the FCC's "overly aggressive timetable" to 
proceed with BPL deployment will effectively preclude the development of 
cooperative interference avoidance and resolution mechanisms.

For additional information, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) 
and Amateur Radio <http://www.arrl.org/bpl/>" page on the ARRL Web site. 
To support the League's efforts in this area, visit the ARRL's secure 
BPL Web site <https://www.arrl.org/forms/development/donations/bpl/>.