ARRL Calls on White House to Withdraw Support for BPL

[Linnea]

ARRL Calls on White House to Withdraw Support for BPL

NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 27, 2004--The ARRL has appealed to President George W. Bush to withdraw his support for broadband over power line (BPL) technology and focus his administration's attention on "more suitable technologies" such as wireless broadband access. The League also has issued a call for members to support Haynie's request. Bush, in an April 26 speech at the Minneapolis convention of the American Association of Community Colleges, advocated changing technical standards to encourage BPL deployment in the US. Speaking on behalf of ARRL's membership, President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, told Bush that while the League supports universal and affordable broadband access, BPL is the wrong direction to take.

"Power lines were designed to transmit energy," Haynie said in a fax to the White House. "They were not designed to transmit broadband signals, which are, in fact, radio frequency signals. The broadband signals radiate from power lines and cause severe interference to radio reception."

Haynie said test sites throughout the US and elsewhere have amply demonstrated BPL's potential to interfere. "You may have been told otherwise; if so, you were misinformed," Haynie said, directing the president's attention to the BPL page on the ARRL Web site.

Bush, in his speech, told the community colleges gathering that there need to be technical standards to enable new broadband technologies such as high-speed communication over power lines. "Power lines were for electricity; power lines can be used for broadband technology," Bush said. "So the technical standards need to be changed to encourage that."

The president's comments reflect the current White House technology agenda. The policy, spelled out in "A New Generation of American Innovation," includes a reference to the Phase 1 BPL study conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of the US Department of Commerce. The NTIA released its detailed BPL study, NTIA Report 04-413, this week.

"The Department of Commerce is developing the technical specifications necessary to enable the widespread and responsible deployment of broadband over powerlines (BPL)," the White House policy states. "Having conducted 10 million measurements of BPL systems, the Department of Commerce will be able to chart the clear technical path forward for BPL to coexist with other critical uses of spectrum. Once deployed, BPL has the potential to turn every electrical outlet into a broadband pipeline."

In his Minneapolis speech, Bush suggested that BPL could offer a means to supply broadband services to rural dwellers, a prospect that the League and others claim is not economically feasible.

"BPL is sometimes touted as a solution for rural areas," said ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ. "It is not." Sumner explained that BPL signals carry only a few thousand feet down a power line and then must be repeated. "This requires a lot of hardware and will not be economical in areas with low population densities."

President Bush in his speech also expressed his administration's continued support for the FCC under the chairmanship of Michael Powell and "his decision to eliminate burdensome regulations on new broadband networks' availability to homes." He also called for opening up more spectrum to make wireless broadband "more accessible, reliable and affordable" and for no taxes on broadband access.

In its BPL Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in ET Docket 04-37, the FCC has proposed amending its Part 15 rules to adopt new requirements and measurement guidelines for so-called "Access BPL" systems. The comment deadline is May 3; reply comments are due by June 1.

Haynie said that the ARRL supports bringing broadband service to Americans at lower cost, but BPL is "an inappropriate technology with far greater disadvantages than advantages."

A Call to Arms

In direct response to the Bush speech, the ARRL is asking its members to support Haynie's request for the White House to withdraw its support for BPL technology. "Using power lines to distribute broadband services is a bad idea that should not be encouraged," said Sumner. "Federally licensed Amateur Radio operators need to tell him so--and also need to enlist their Members of Congress in reversing this bad administration policy. It is important for radio amateurs to get the facts across to the White House as well as to our Congressional representatives and senators."

The ARRL Web site provides an information package explaining how members can contact the White House and members of Congress to express their views on BPL deployment and why they need to do so.

"Do it now!" Sumner urges in his call to arms. "We need thousands of responses from all parts of the country, right away, if we are to make an impression."

For additional information, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio" page on the ARRL Web site. To support the League's efforts in this area, visit the ARRL's secure BPL Web site.


http://www.arrl.org

[Burt Gummer]

At this point it may take an *executive order* to get it stopped!

[Lastmartian]

Since BPL seems to benefit power companies, and most power plants are OIL fired, well....