[South Florida DX Association] ARLB019 FCC extends reply comment deadline in BPL proceeding

[Bill Marx]

> SB QST @ ARL $ARLB019
> ARLB019 FCC extends reply comment deadline in BPL proceeding
> 
> ZCZC AG19
> QST de W1AW  
> ARRL Bulletin 19  ARLB019
> From ARRL Headquarters  
> Newington CT  May 28, 2004
> To all radio amateurs 
> 
> SB QST ARL ARLB019
> ARLB019 FCC extends reply comment deadline in BPL proceeding
> 
> The FCC has extended the deadline to file reply comments (comments
> on filed comments) in its broadband over power line (BPL) Notice of
> Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), ET Docket 04-37, to Tuesday, June 22.
> The FCC acted this week on a request from the National Antenna
> Consortium and the Amherst Alliance (NAC/Amherst) for a much longer
> filing deadline extension. The organizations said the June 1 reply
> comment deadline FCC would not allow stakeholders adequate time to
> prepare comments that address the full two-part National
> Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Phase 2 BPL
> study. The FCC said the NTIA has indicated that it soon will submit
> comments and a technical appendix that will include key findings of
> the Phase 2 report, which is due for release later this year.
> 
> NAC/Amherst had sought to have the FCC postpone the filing comment
> deadline until either September 1 or two months after the public
> release of the NTIA's Phase 2 study--whichever was later. The FCC
> said, however, that the additional three weeks should be ''ample
> time'' to respond to the anticipated NTIA submission, provided it's
> filed reasonably close to the anticipated May 28 date.
> 
> Noting that its Part 15 rules already permit Access BPL systems and
> that its February BPL NPRM places additional requirements on BPL
> systems over and above current Part 15 requirements, the FCC
> asserted that any further delay would diminish the Commission's
> ability to protect licensed users now occupying the HF spectrum. A
> further extension, the FCC added, also would ''needlessly increase
> regulatory uncertainty'' about BPL.
> 
> The FCC turned down a request that the FCC reissue in substantially
> greater detail the provisions of its proposed BPL rules concerning
> interference prevention and mitigation and the enforcement of
> standards.
> 
> The FCC does not routinely grant such time extensions, and it denied
> earlier petitions, including filings from the ARRL and NAC/Amherst,
> to extend the initial May 3 comment filing deadline.
> NNNN
> /EX
>