Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Utilities Won't Get PLC Broadband Without A Fight

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:23:15 -0400

Utilities Won't Get PLC Broadband Without A Fight

Aug 12, 2003

The FCC has granted an extension of time to file reply comments in its inquiry
into what it calls Broadband over Power Lines (BPL). The extension was requested
by subsidiaries of electric utility Southern Company [NYSE: SO], Southern LINC,
Southern Telecom and Southern Company Services. The companies requested more time
to sift through the large number of comments filed. The FCC's Office of
Engineering and Technology granted a 30-day extension saying it doesn't normally
do so, but that "the large number of filings received so far and the complexity of
the subject" made the move appropriate.

So far there have been well over 2,000 comments and replies filed with the
Commission -- many from individual amateur radio operators under the banner of the
Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL). ARRL is deeply upset about the potential for RF
interference from BPL and is gearing up for a major battle. At the same time, the
proceeding brings up enough other questions to make clear that before BPL can
become the third broadband pipe into the home in Chairman Powell's vision of
intermodal competition, it's going to have to clear a lot of hurdles.

The hundreds of brief comments opposing BPL filed by individual radio licensees
are only part of ARRL's campaign to head off the technology. The group clearly
sees BPL as the greatest threat amateur radio has faced in decades and is pulling
out all the stops to defeat it. The group's own filing refers to it as, "a
Pandora's Box of unprecedented proportions."

Elsewhere, ARRL is collecting donations for a lobbying campaign aimed at
government officials. As of July 31, ARRL's web site claimed that the group
hadraised nearly $193,000 toward a goal of $300,000 by the end of August. Chief
Development Officer Mary Hobart said the issue was bringing operators "out of the
woodwork" who had never before given money to the organization

In addition, ARRL has begun gathering its own technical data. ARRL submitted a
thick package of RF engineering calculations with its comments meant to assess RF
interference generated by power lines. However, these calculations were based on
the most reasonable assumptions about what's presently in the field, with ARRL
Laboratory Manager Ed Hare writing that the group "has little data on the
characteristics of the present BPL systems."

To correct that shortcoming, ARRL sent Hare on the road with a mobile system
designed to monitor the high frequency bands used by amateurs for BPL
interference. Hare described the interference he found as "devastating."

ARRL's quest against BPL in the U.S. is only the latest chapter of a global fight
by amateurs to protect their spectrum. The group takes heart in what it claims is
a victory in Japan. There, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunica-tions decided
last July not to proceed with high-frequency PLC between 2 MHz and 30 MHz, at
emission limits matched to the FCC Part 15 rules at issue in the present Inquiry.
Presentations against the plan included results of monitoring experiments,
including actual recordings of PLC modem noise.

Amateur radio operators are not the only ones with issues about BPL interference.
Other radio applications are affected as well. At least some commercial operators
have also filed comments. Globe Wireless VP Peter Kierans was among those urging
the Commission not to allow BPL "until exhaustive studies prove that its use will
not degrade distress, safety and commercial HF-based mobile communications." Globe
Wireless is a commercial operator of maritime radio services, focusing mainly on
data communication with ships at sea.

The overall message broadband players should take from all this is not necessarily
that BPL is doomed -- that's far from clear -- or even that there isn't a way to
make the technology work without massive spillover effects. But it should be
obvious at this point that BPL is a hot button issue for amateur radio operators
and others in the affected spectrum. This is a constituency with concerns and it's
working hard to make sure those concerns are respected in the process.

Of course it's not the only one.

A surprising number of other issues have been raised in the Inquiry's comments and
replies, many of which raise technical questions about BPL's ability to scale up
beyond small test projects, and even about its safety given the need for most BPL
technologies to route signals around transformers. Verizon [NYSE: VZ] even jumped
into the proceeding to once again argue that the appearance of BPL on the horizon,
"reinforces the urgent need for the Commission to classify all broadband services
under Title I and to treat all broadband providers equally."

Radio operators and others concerned about technical problems don't have the field
to themselves, of course. A number of electrical utilities and equipment vendors
have weighed in on the positive side. Notable among these comments are those from
small rural electric companies. BPL's ability to provide broadband access to
underserved rural areas is one of the main reasons the FCC is so enthusiastic
about it.

Of course there's room to argue that BPL wouldn't do any better at serving
dispersed rural customers than cable and DSL have done. The technology requires
frequent use of repeaters, typically every 2,000 to 2,500 feet depending on the
vendor. This would, in turn, raise the cost per house passed in rural areas well
above the cost for more densely packed areas that already have broadband options
for just this reason.

However, comments show that many rural utilities are excited about BPL as a way to
get into the broadband market. For example, Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) VP
Adrian Minks writes that "2 percent of our urban customers and 69 percent of our
rural customers, representing nearly 44,000 homes, do not have broadband access."
OPPD is eager to use BPL to increase broadband competition and better serve rural
residents in its territory.

Whether this will be a fight to the death or whether interference can be reduced
to the satisfaction of both sides remains to be seen. However, alongside the
existing technical and competitive issues BPL faces, the dispute growing over the
FCC's attempts to promote it make it clear that getting BPL into the field will be
neither quick nor easy.

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