ARRL Calls on White House to Withdraw Support for BPL:

ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, has appealed to President and fellow Texan George W. Bush to withdraw his support for broadband over power line (BPL) technology and focus on "more suitable technologies" such as wireless broadband. The League this week also issued a call for members to support Haynie's request. In an April 26 speech at the Minneapolis convention of the American Association of Community Colleges, Bush advocated changing technical standards to encourage BPL deployment in the US. Haynie 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," not broadband signals, Haynie said in a fax. "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," he said, directing the president's attention to the BPL page on the ARRL Web site http://www.arrl.org/bpl.

Bush this week 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."

"Once deployed," the president declared, "BPL has the potential to turn every electrical outlet into a broadband pipeline." Bush also suggested that BPL could 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."

Bush also praised FCC Chairman Michael K. 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 Monday, May 3; reply comments are due by June 1.

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. "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 http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/cta/. It explains how members can contact the White House and members of Congress to express their views on BPL deployment.

"Do it now!" Sumner urged. "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 ARRL's "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio" page http://www.arrl.org/bpl/. To support the League's efforts in this area, visit the ARRL's secure BPL Web site https://www.arrl.org/forms/development/donations/bpl/.

Source:

The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 18 April 30, 2004

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