[MIham] Broadband Over Power Lines Hits a Snag

[FSK]

Broadband Over Power Lines Hits a Snag
Wed Jan 7, 5:00 PM ET  Add Technology - PC World to My Yahoo!


Grant Gross, IDG News Service

If some radio operators have their way, broadband Internet access may 
never
travel over power lines. Ham radio operators and at least one U.S. 
federal
agency contend that the emerging technology interferes with their radio
signals.


The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), a national ham radio 
association, and
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites) are among 
the
organizations that have raised concerns with the U.S. Federal 
Communications
Commission (news - web sites) over possible short-wave radio 
interference
caused by broadband over power lines, often called BPL.


Companies experimenting with BPL, which uses traditional power lines to
transmit data over the Internet, have promoted it as an
inexpensive-to-deploy alternative to cable-modem or DSL services.


Some BPL supporters champion it as a way for broadband to reach rural 
and
other areas with limited broadband service because of the near ubiquity 
of
power lines.

Under Examination

The two sides are miles apart on the interference issue, which the FCC
(news - web sites) is examining in a request for public comments that 
has
been ongoing since last April. The ham radio association says it has 
found
radio interference in every place it has tested short-wave BPL systems,
while representatives of the BPL industry say they can't find 
interference
caused by their systems.


The FCC's rules already prohibit unlicensed electronic devices, 
including
BPL transmitters, from interfering with licensed devices, such as ham
radios. If the FCC were to find interference and enforce its existing 
rules,
most of the BPL industry could be shut down. "If the commission were to
follow its rules, that would be the practical effect," says Dave 
Sumner,
chief executive officer of ARRL. "If the commission decides that BPL 
cannot
operate in this country, that'd be fine with us."


Most BPL vendors use devices called repeaters to amplify and clean up 
the
data signal carried on power lines, and those devices, as well as BPL
modems, emit frequencies in the same range as radios used by ham radio
operators and some emergency responders, according to the ARRL. Some 
BPL
vendors are experimenting with devices that use microwave signals, and 
the
ARRL says those devices would not interfere with ham radios.


But Current Technologies, which offers BPL service in the Cincinnati 
and
Rockville, Maryland, areas, can't find interference caused by its 
system,
says Jay Birnbaum, the company's vice president and general counsel. 
Current
Technologies uses a technology standard called HomePlug, designed to 
not
interfere with other radio signals.


"[Interference] just doesn't exist," Birnbaum says. "They based a lot 
of
their assumptions on outdated noise flow analysis."

Overprotective?

Birnbaum accuses the ARRL of being overprotective of its turf. "The
decision-maker here is not the ham radio community--the decision-maker 
is
the FCC," he says. "It's been [ARRL's] policy to oppose any new 
technology
that causes emissions, whether they be harmful or not." ARRL does 
maintain a
Web page listing nine technologies it calls "threats to our amateur 
bands."


It doesn't make sense for BPL companies like Current Technologies to 
move
forward with their business plans and financing if they're causing
interference, because the FCC could immediately shut them down if they 
did,
Birnbaum adds. Any interference the ARRL is measuring might be coming 
from
other licensed radio devices, he says.


"If it turns out I'm trying to make a device or sell a device that 
would
cause interference anytime it's used, it kind of belies logic that I 
could
raise money to do that," Birnbaum says.


The ARRL has posted a video on its Web site showing interference in 
four BPL
test areas, including Current Technologies' Maryland location. "For 
them to
say that [they don't cause interference] shows they don't know what 
they're
talking about," Sumner says of Current's position. "It's a classic case 
of
denial. We'd be glad to go down and show them the interference we've
observed on their system."


If the FCC were to enforce its existing rules against interference, 
ARRL
would be happy, Sumner says. ARRL became concerned that the FCC would 
relax
its interference rules when commissioners praised BPL during a 
commission
meeting in April, he says. FCC Chairman Michael Powell called BPL a
"monumental breakthrough in technology."


"The benefits don't outweigh the negative consequences," Sumner says.
"You're taking a part of the radio spectrum that's unique--it's the 
only
part of the radio spectrum that supports communications long distance
without infrastructure."

Next Step

The FCC has received about 5000 comments on BPL, and a possible next 
step
would be to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking later this year, if 
the
commission determines new rules are needed for BPL, an FCC spokesperson
says. In December, the Federal Emergency Management Agency filed 
comments
saying BPL could "severely impair FEMA's mission-essential HF radio
operations."


The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (news - 
web
sites) at the U.S. Department of Commerce is conducting its own study, 
and
phase one is due out in the first half of 2004. The agency is 
attempting to
address the balance between accommodation of BPL and protection of 
vital
federal and private services, according to an agency spokesperson.


The FEMA objections simply repeat the concerns of the ARRL, says Brett
Kilbourne, director of regulatory services and associate counsel at the
United PowerLine Council. The FCC should allow BPL to continue 
operating
after it's finished researching the issue, he says.

"Our experience in the field contradicts what [the ARRL is] alleging,"
Kilbourne says. "We're entirely satisfied that there won't be any
interference."








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