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 Previous: The K7RA Solar Update |  Next: Don't Petrify, Diversify |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 24, 2006--The ARRL has demanded that the FCC order the United Telecom Council (UTC) to "cease its arbitrary limits" on access to the public BPL Interference Resolution Web site Web site. UTC administers the site, which FCC Part 15 rules require to be "publicly available." In a complaint filed February 23 with the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, the FCC Enforcement Bureau and UTC, the League charged UTC with "arbitrarily and unlawfully" preventing radio amateurs, the ARRL and other Amateur Radio groups from utilizing the BPL database.
"Quite simply, UTC's 'management' of this database has in a very short time proven a shambles," ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, wrote on the League's behalf. "The Commission has taken no action in response to any BPL interference complaints, but UTC's restricting access to the database is directly and overtly contrary to the specific language of both the Report and Order (R&O) and §15.615 of the Commission's rules."
According to the complaint, ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, found himself locked out of the BPL database February 14 after attempting to search a particular ZIP code. An "error" message warned: "The System has determined that this line of searching constitues [sic] unauthorized use of the database. Cease operations immediately."
"There was no unauthorized use of the database," Imlay said, noting that an ARRL staff member received the same message after attempting to search two ZIP codes from an e-mail address in the "arrl.org" domain. "It was apparent thereafter that anyone using an 'arrl.org' domain name was unilaterally shut out of the database by UTC for an indeterminate amount of time," the League's complaint continued.
Imlay also cited the experience of Gary Zabriskie, N7ARE, the secretary of the Dixie Amateur Radio Club in Utah. On February 15, he attempted a search covering several ZIP codes in the club's membership area to report any BPL trials or rollouts to the club's members. He received the same "error" message after entering the third ZIP code. The following week, Imlay noted, a member of the ARRL Laboratory staff conducted a series of searches to determine if previously noted discrepancies in the database had been corrected. After entering his seventh ZIP code search, he received a message indicating that he had exceeded his search limit, "though you may try again later," the message added.
A advisory on the BPL Interference Resolution Web Site page states: "Access via scripted or automated programs is prohibited. Each individual is allowed to search a limited number of times. Individuals are advised not to conduct random searches of the database, or their access to the database may be further restricted."
Asserted the ARRL in its complaint: "The limits placed unilaterally and apparently variably on searches of the database are each and all improper. There is nothing in any Commission document that authorizes UTC to limit access to the database whatsoever." Even worse, the League went on, UTC was limiting public access arbitrarily by IP address or domain name, "and apparently as few as three ZIP code searches trigger the cutoff mechanism." The League said there is no technical reason to limit the search function.
The League maintains that the design of the database and the restricted access are "clearly intended to frustrate the Commission's purpose" in requiring the database in the first place and "to inhibit complaints of interference" from BPL systems. As a result, the ARRL says, the FCC should immediately rescind UTC's appointment as the BPL database administrator or order UTC to end its arbitrary limits on access to the database "without delay."
Earlier this month, the League complained to the FCC that the UTC-administered BPL Interference Resolution Web Site database was "woefully incomplete and improperly managed."
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