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2009 Articles
It Seems To Us: Now We Know
August 01, 2009 -- Now we know what the FCC didn’t want us to know, back in 2004, about its staff studies of interference to radio services from Broadband over Power Line (BPL) systems. It was only in response to an ARRL Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and then only after the rules had been rushed to adoption, that the Commission deigned to draw back the curtain to provide selective glimpses of its staff’s work.
July 22, 2009 -- On July 17, the FCC issued a Request for Further Comment and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM), addressing the issues remanded to them by the US Court of Appeals. In October 2007, the ARRL took the Commission to court concerning the Commission's Orders adopting rules governing broadband over power line (BPL) systems. In April 2008, the Court agreed with the ARRL on two major points and remanded the rules to the Commission. Writing for the three-judge panel of Circuit Judges Rogers, Tatel and Kavanaugh, Judge Rogers summarized: "The Commission failed to satisfy the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act ('APA') by redacting studies on which it relied in promulgating the rule and failed to provide a reasoned explanation for its choice of the extrapolation factor for measuring Access BPL emissions."
June 26, 2009 -- On June 24, 2009, the ARRL filed a petition with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the Court to order the Federal Communications Commission to comply with the Court's 2008 decision that remanded the FCC's ruling on Access BPL for further action.
May 8, 2009 -- Earlier this month, the FCC released the redacted portions of the studies on which they relied with regard to its Broadband over Powerline (BPL) rulemaking in 2004 after ARRL filed a Freedom of Information Act request on March 31 for the studies. In October 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard ARRL's case against the Commission, stating, among other things, that the FCC not only withheld the internal studies until it was too late to comment, but had yet to release portions of studies that may not support its own conclusions regarding BPL. The FCC claimed that the studies were "internal communications" that it did not rely upon in reaching its decision to adopt the BPL rules. In its April 2008 ruling, the Court ordered the FCC to release the studies.
March 4, 2009 -- On February 25 -- 10 months to the day that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit released its decision on the ARRL's Petition for Review of the FCC's Orders adopting rules governing broadband over power line (BPL) systems -- ARRL General Counsel, Chris Imlay, W3KD, sent a letter to FCC Acting Chairman Michael Copps, requesting that the Commission "revisit the BPL rules without further delay, and to comply with the obligations placed on it by the Court." In its April 2008 decision, the Court agreed with the ARRL on two major points and remanded the rules to the Commission. According to Imlay, "to date, literally nothing has been done by the Commission to comply with these instructions."
February 13, 2009 --
January 19, 2009 -- On January 16, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission released data, as of December 31, 2007, on the services used for high-speed Internet access in the United States. According to the data collected by the FCC, as of that date there were 121.2 million high-speed lines (including wireless), a 20 percent increase in just six months.
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Date |
Title |
| November 12, 2008 | IBM Teams up with BPL Provider to Offer Services in Seven States On Wednesday, November 12, IBM announced that it has signed a $9.6 million deal with International Broadband Electric Communications (IBEC) to install equipment and provide BPL service to almost 350,000 homes in Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. |
| October 16, 2008 | City of Manassas Takes Over BPL System from Private Company Late last month, the Manassas, Virginia City Council voted 4-2 to assume control of the Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) service from the private company that serves approximately 675 residents. As a result of the vote, the City of Manassas will now have to use monies from the utility's ratepayers to fund the service and recoup the cost from the subscribers. |
| July 28, 2008 |
UKQRM - Yahoo! Group formed to fight against BPL |
| July 15, 2008 | ARRL, FCC, Meet in Washington to Discuss BPL Remand On July 9, ARRL officials -- President Joel Harrison, W5ZN; Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, and General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD -- met with members of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss the recent US Court of Appeals decision regarding broadband over power lines (BPL). In that case, the Court agreed with the ARRL on two major points and remanded the rules to the Commission. According to Imlay, the meeting was convened to discuss "a possible regulatory approach" to BPL with the FCC. |
| July 14, 2008 | Court of Appeals: FCC Must Reimburse Fees from BPL Challenge The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ordered that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reimburse ARRL for the docketing fee and the cost of reproducing copies of briefs and appendices in the ARRL's successful challenge of the FCC's broadband over power line (BPL) rules. The Order, issued on July 9 following review of an opposition from the FCC and a reply from the ARRL, awarded the ARRL's full claim of $6,096.18. |
| May 2, 2008 | Newspaper Reports "BPL plan is dead in Dallas" The Dallas Morning News has reported that "an ambitious plan for using power lines to deliver fast Internet service to 2 million Dallas-area homes collapsed Thursday." Current Group, LLC has announced plans to sell its Dallas BPL network to Oncor, a regulated electric distribution and transmission business, for $90 million. |
| April 25, 2008 | Court Finds FCC Violated Administrative Procedure Act in BPL Decision The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today released its decision on the ARRL's Petition for Review of the FCC's Orders adopting rules governing broadband over power line (BPL) systems. The Court agreed with the ARRL on two major points and remanded the rules to the Commission. Writing for the three-judge panel of Circuit Judges Rogers, Tatel and Kavanaugh, Judge Rogers summarized: "The Commission failed to satisfy the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act ('APA') by redacting studies on which it relied in promulgating the rule and failed to provide a reasoned explanation for its choice of the extrapolation factor for measuring Access BPL emissions." |
| April 1, 2008 | It Seems to Us: Imaginary Numbers One of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with the issue of radio interference from broadband over power line (BPL) technology has been the irrational boosterism of the federal government. |
| February 23, 2008 | Draft PLT regulations published in government gazette South African regulator ICASA had published a notice of intention to make regulations in respect of Technical standards for Power Line Telecommunications (also known as BPL) in the Government Gazette with a response date of 6 March 2008. |
| February 6, 2008 | "Source" Disavows Inflated NTIA BPL Figure The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report "Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007" released on January 31, 2008 includes the following: "Reliable BPL [broadband over power lines] subscribership figures are difficult to find. The FCC's most recent data identify fewer than 5,000 BPL customers as of yearend 2006. That figure appears low, however. TIA [The Telecommunications Industry Association] estimates 200,000 current BPL subscribers…" |
| February 1, 2008 | NTIA report on Broadband in America 2007 inflates BPL figures David Sumner, K1ZZ ARRL Chief Executive Officer highlights the distortions with regard to the polluting BPL technology that appeared in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) report 'Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007'. |
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Date |
Title |
| December 1, 2007 | Aurora Pulls The Plug on BPL (Australia) "ABC news reported today that Tasmanian electricity retailer, Aurora Energy, is planning to end its Tasmanian BPL trial. The Aurora Chief Executive, Peter Davis, is reported to have said that Aurora's BPL trial 'does not have the resources to maintain its viability', and 'certainly it hasn't been a good money-making exercise for Aurora'. Aurora spent about $2 million since the inception of the trial in 2004, and during that time has seriously addressed the interference aspects of BPL with some success. However at the end of the day it appears that the economics in an increasingly competitive environment just didn't stack up for BPL in Tasmania." |
| December 1, 2007 |
Aurora Cuts Communications (Australia) |
| November 28, 2007 | Aurora shifts focus to fibre in telecommunications strategy Aurora Energy has announced a significant shift in its telecommunications business, to build on major successes in optical fibre activities which are delivering high speed communications around the State. As a result of increasing competition and the rapidly changing national policy position for retail telecommunications, Aurora is to divest its involvement with the local retailer TasTel and conclude its Broadband over Powerlines initiative. |
| November 14, 2007 | FCC "Admonishes" Ambient over BPL Issues The FCC, in a letter to Yehuda Cern, Chief Engineer for Ambient Corporation, concluded their investigation into whether Ambient's BPL operation caused "harmful interference" to Amateur Radio stations in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The Commission found that "Ambient's BPL operation has violated the radiated emission limits of Section 15.109" of the FCC Rules "and the terms of its experimental license, call sign WD2XEQ." The FCC's letter went on to say that "we hereby admonish Ambient." No findings were made, however, as to whether or not the system actually caused interference to Amateur Radio, and the Enforcement Bureau left open the issue of future experimental BPL operations at Briarcliff Manor. |
| November 5, 2007 |
FCC Releases Broadband Report |
| October 25, 2007 |
ARRL Faces FCC in Federal Court over BPL Issues |
| September 5, 2007 | NATO Group Releases Report on BPL The Information Systems Technology group, part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Research and Technology Organization (RTO), released their report, HF Interference, Procedures and Tools (RTO-TR-IST-050), in June. This report "address[es] the concerns raised by the potential for unintentional radio interference to be caused by the widespread operation of broadband wire-line telecommunications systems." |
| September 1, 2007 | Draft PLT regulations under the spotlight "South African regulator ICASA has asked the EMC workgroup of the STANSA TC73 and TC80 committees to come up with draft regulations for type approval of PLT (also known as BPL) equipment as an interim measure. . . The South African Radio League (SARL) is represented at the Workgroup and has made its input. There is much ongoing debate and unhappiness about the SARL's demands that all Amateur Radio HF frequencies be notched at the time of installation. In particular the vendors of PLT equipment would only like to notch when an interference complaint is received. The SARL's view is that Radio Amateurs are licensed to operate on HF and that their rights should be protected." |
| Aug 30, 2007 | FCC Issues Two Citations in Longstanding Power Line Noise Case -- The Federal Communication Commission's Dallas Field Office issued Citations on July 25 to two utilities in a longstanding power line noise case in Lubbock, Texas. Bryan Edwards, W5KFT, of Lubbock, first reported the interference concerning the two involved utilities, Lubbock Power & Light (LP&L) and Xcel Energy, as early as 1994. |
| August 16, 2007 | DirecTV Announces Plan to Provide Service via BPL According to the August 15 edition of The Wall Street Journal, "Satellite-television provider DirecTV announced a wholesale agreement today with Current Group to provide high-speed Internet service over electric-power lines," otherwise known as broadband over powerlines (BPL). . . ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, commented, "ARRL and Current have communicated regularly over the past few years. Current has been an early leader in carefully choosing its design to avoid interference to Amateur Radio. They don't operate below 30 MHz on overhead lines at all, and use HomePlug technology, which doesn't use the ham bands, in customers' premises. To date, ARRL has no Amateur Radio interference reports involving Current or HomePlug equipment." |
| August 15, 2007 | BPL Industry Representative Appointed to ARRL EMC Committee ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, has appointed Brent Zitting, KB4SL, of Huntsville, Alabama, to serve on ARRL's ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Committee. Zitting, a 25-year ARRL member, is employed by IBEC, a BPL manufacturer and integrator located in Huntsville, Alabama. The EMC Committee, chaired by Roanoke Division Director Dennis Bodson, W4PWF, consists of representatives from various industries that are interested in helping ARRL effectively and appropriately work with industry on interference issues. |
| August 2, 2007 | ARRL Files Objection to Ambient's BPL Experimental Authorization Renewal Request -- On July 25, the ARRL filed an Informal Objection to Ambient Corporation's request for a renewal of their nationwide experimental authorization that allows them to operate broadband over power line (BPL) operations anywhere in the country they choose. Ambient has been operating its BPL equipment under experimental authorizations for more than five years, an unusual amount of time for an experimental authorization. |
| July 26, 2007 | FCC Commissioner Lauds BPL in House Testimony; ARRL Responds -- On July 24, FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein testified at a House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet hearing that "three of the many urgent priorities we face" include the need for "a national broadband strategy to ensure the ubiquitous deployment of affordable, high speed broadband infrastructure to this country." FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Tate, McDowell and Copps testified as well at the "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission" hearing. |
| July 6, 2007 | FCC Responds to ARRL's BPL Brief -- Earlier this week, the FCC filed its reply brief with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The FCC attempted to rebut the ARRL's challenge to the FCC's Broadband over Power Line (BPL) rules enacted in late 2004 and affirmed by the agency in 2006. According to ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, "The FCC's brief does not accurately describe ARRL's arguments concerning harmful interference." |
| July 1, 2007 | It Seems to Us: ARRL v. FCC On May 17, attorneys representing the ARRL filed the initial brief in support of our petition for judicial review of the FCC's flawed rules governing Access Broadband over Power Line (BPL) systems. This is an important step on the road to what we hope will be a favorable decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. |
| June 26, 2007 | ARRL Staffers Meet in Geneva to Discuss BPL, Handbook ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ just finished up a meeting of International Telecommunication Union-Radio Communication Sector (ITU-R) Working Party 1A (WP 1A) in Geneva, Switzerland. This group, responsible for spectrum engineering techniques within Study Group 1 (spectrum management), worked on a document that may eventually become what's called a "preliminary draft new report" on the impact of power line telecommunications (PLT, or BPL on this side of the Atlantic) on radiocommunication systems operating below 80 MHz. |
| June 24, 2007 | PLT IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE SYSTEM WHILE INTERFERENCE TO HF IS POTENTIALLY HIGH This was the message that the SARL delivered to the Broadband Conference held at the Sandton Convention Centre during the past week. |
| June 15, 2007 | Senate Bill Calls on FCC to Investigate BPL Interference Potential -- Sen Mark Pryor of Arkansas filed a bill yesterday in the US Senate calling on the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a study on the interference caused by broadband Internet transmission over power lines, otherwise known as BPL. Sen Pryor is a member of the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. |
| June 1, 2007 | ARRL to FCC: Shut Down "Grossly Noncompliant" Ambient BPL Pilot Project The ARRL has again demanded that the FCC shut down Ambient Corporation's broadband over power line (BPL) pilot project in Briarcliff Manor, New York. On May 21 the FCC called on the BPL equipment maker and system operator to demonstrate it's complying with all terms of the Part 5 Experimental license authorizing the system, or face possible enforcement action. In a May 31 letter to FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Kathryn S. Berthot, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, contended that it's "long past time that the Commission enforce its own rules," and again objected to the Commission's "inexplicable inaction" in the face of evidence the system is noncompliant. Imlay pointed out that the FCC's May 21 letter made no mention of Condition #1 of Ambient's Part 5 Experimental license. |
| May 24, 2007 |
ARRL Files Federal Appeals Court Brief in Petition for Review of BPL Rules |
| May 23, 2007 |
FCC Demands Ambient Demonstrate Compliance with BPL License Conditions |
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April 24, 2007 |
Motorola Suspends Powerline LV BPL Development |
| April 15, 2007 | CES Not Just for Consumers (QST magazine, "Eclectic Technology") ARRL meets with HomePlug officials at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "ARRL Laboratory Supervisor Ed Hare, W1RFI, knows HomePlug well. 'ARRL has a long-standing cooperative relationship with HomePlug,' Hare said, "helping them to make the decision not to use the amateur bands in their product specification. This has been a successful model. Over the past 7 years, even though there are over 6 million HomePlug devices deployed, ARRL does not have a single report of harmful interference to Amateur Radio involving HomePlug products. If the entire BPL industry could follow their lead and formally do what HomePlug has determined needs to be done, interference from BPL could become a manageable problem.'" |
| March 7, 2007 |
Cooperation Rules as Radio Amateurs "Down Under" Confront BPL Interference |
| March 2, 2007 |
Concord BPL Update |
| February 13, 2007 | BPL Study Bill Gains Cosponsors "A bill in the US House of Representatives calling on the FCC to study the interference potential of broadband over power line (BPL) technology and report its findings back to Congress has gained two cosponsors, its sponsor, US Rep Mike Ross, WD5DVR (D-AR), reports. They are US Rep Steve Israel (D-NY) and US Rep Ron Paul (R-TX)." |
| February 7, 2007 |
ARRL Seeks to Force FCC to Produce Documents on BPL Complaint Dismissals |
| February 1, 2007 | League Criticizes FCC Chairman for Perpetuating BPL Service Myth ARRL criticized FCC Chairman Kevin Martin for using outdated, misleading BPL-industry-supplied information in FCC's testimony to Congress. In the 2006 map fed to the FCC by the United Power Line Council, there were a number of BPL cities shown that have been shut down for as long as a couple of years. Subsequent to ARRL calling this to the FCC's attention, Comparing the new map provided by UPLC to the old shows that the number of BPL installations in the US is a significantly smaller number than they told the Chairman. |
| January 18, 2007 |
Bill Seeks BPL Interference Study, Report to Congress |
| January 11, 2007 |
Brazilian power company launches BPL pilot project |
| January 10, 2007 | BPL System Could Be Deployed In Concord "This is a DS2-chipset system made by Corinex. Such a system has been recently installed in Houston, Texas, operated by CenterPoint, the electric utility. Although there was one complaint to a home Amateur station, it was quickly resolved by notching the Amateur bands. At this point, in Houston the Amateur bands are notched in the entire system. I evaluated the Houston system a few months ago and found that with good communication between hams and the BPL operator and careful operation and notching, it is possible to operate a DS2-based BPL system without major interference problems. The same cooperation exists in Concord." - Ed Hare W1RFI |