[South Florida DX Association] ARLB005 ARRL Tells FCC to "Reconsider, Rescind and Restudy" BPL Order

[Bill Marx]

> 
> ZCZC AG05
> QST de W1AW  
> ARRL Bulletin 5  ARLB005
> From ARRL Headquarters  
> Newington CT  February 9, 2005
> To all radio amateurs 
> 
> SB QST ARL ARLB005
> ARLB005 ARRL Tells FCC to ''Reconsider, Rescind and Restudy'' BPL 
> Order
> 
> The ARRL has petitioned the FCC to take its broadband over power
> line (BPL) Report and Order (R&O) back to the drawing board. In a
> Petition for Reconsideration filed February 7, the League called on
> the Commission to ''reconsider, rescind and restudy'' its October 14,
> 2004, adoption of new Part 15 rules spelling out how BPL providers
> may deploy the technology on HF and low-VHF frequencies. Asserting
> that the R&O fails to adequately take into account the technology's
> potential to interfere with Amateur Radio and other licensed
> services, the League called the FCC's action to permit BPL ''a gross
> policy mistake.'' The R&O, the ARRL said, ''represents a classic case
> of prejudgment'' by an FCC that knew better but ignored evidence
> already at its disposal.
> 
> ''It is readily apparent that the Commission long ago made up its
> mind that it was going to permit BPL without substantial regulation,
> no matter what the effect of this flawed application of old
> technology is on licensed radio services,'' the League's petition
> declares. The ARRL accuses FCC Commissioner Michael Powell and his
> four colleagues of deliberately authorizing ''a spectrum pollution
> source'' that's proven to be incompatible with existing licensed uses
> of the HF spectrum.
> 
> ''The Commission wanted nothing to contradict its enthusiasm about
> BPL,'' the League said, and its Office of Engineering and Technology
> (OET) saw to it that evidence of the ''fundamental incompatibility''
> between BPL and incumbent HF radio services ''was suppressed, ignored
> or discredited.'' The FCC has not adjudicated a single interference
> complaints, the ARRL added, but has swept interference complaints
> under the rug.
> 
> The ARRL further argued that Powell should have recused himself from
> voting on the R&O. The chairman, the ARRL says, violated the FCC's
> own ex parte rules by attending a BPL provider's demonstration
> October 12, after release of the October 14 agenda. Powell ''tainted
> this proceeding'' by taking part in the demonstration, and that alone
> is sufficient to have the Commission vacate and reconsider its
> action, the ARRL alleged.
> 
> The League also said the FCC's ''late and incomplete'' responses to
> ARRL's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests fail to show any
> support for FCC's conclusions regarding interference to licensed
> services from BPL. The highly redacted information release contained
> nothing that supports the FCC's conclusions about BPL's interference
> potential and suppressed negative recommendations from its own
> technical investigators, the petition says. As a result, the League
> said, the Commission ''failed to conduct impartial, reasoned
> rulemaking.''
> 
> The Commission used an unlawful ''balancing test'' that weighed BPL's
> purported benefits against its interference to licensed services,
> the League asserts, creating ''a hierarchy of licensed radio
> services'' based upon ''how much interference each service deserves.''
> The Communications Act, the League's petition points out, requires
> an objective determination from the outset that the likelihood of
> harmful interference from a proposed unlicensed service is virtually
> nil.
> 
> The interference mitigation rules in the R&O are both ineffective
> and inequitably applied, the ARRL's petition further argues. Noting
> the new rules do not require BPL systems to shut down in the event
> of interference except as ''a last resort,'' the League said the
> practical effect is ''that systems will never have to shut down,''
> even if the BPL operator has not been able to remedy ongoing harmful
> interference to the Amateur Service. The new rules, the petition
> charges, accord priority to unlicensed BPL, ''regardless of the
> preclusive effect'' or the duration of interference.
> 
> In its unanimous BPL decision, the Commission, the League says, has
> abandoned its fundamental obligation to avoid interference in
> telecommunication systems, instead requiring complainants to
> initiate contact with BPL providers and ''beg for resolution.'' The
> ARRL petition also faults the Commission's adopted measurement
> standards.
> 
> The League's Petition for Reconsideration in ET Dockets 03-104 and
> 04-37 is on the ARRL Web site,
> http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/et04-37/recon_petition/.
> NNNN
> /EX
>