INTEREST IN BROADBAND OVER POWER LINE PERKS UP IN CANADA
Canadian regulators are closely following the FCC’s actions relating to the nascent broadband over power line (BPL) industry, although “we can’t [regulate] in the same fashion as the FCC,” Jean-Claude Brien of Industry Canada told us. “We are kind of now monitoring closely, cooperating with Canadian proponents and obviously looking at what’s being done in the U.S. to assess the impact of the regulation or the approach the U.S. will take.” In contrast to the more than a dozen public BPL trials underway in the U.S., Canada has reported only one ongoing pilot -- by PUC Telecom, an affiliate of the power utility owned by the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Some industry officials blame lack of interest in a 3rd high-speed platform on high broadband penetration in Canada compared with the U.S., but Brien, who’s dir.-spectrum engineering, said interest in BPL had begun to pick up “since last year.”
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Industry Canada is looking at both the technical and policy issues relating to BPL, but unlike in the U.S., “our laws and regulations don’t provide the same type of flexibility,” said Brien. He said the differences in regulatory environment from the U.S. involve how licenses were provided, operational needs, de-licensing and ways to deal with interference-causing equipment. Canada’s equivalent of the FCC’s Part 15 rules was the Radio Standards Specification 210 (RSS-210), he said. Part 15 deals with equipment that causes interference such as computers, phones and TV sets, as well as RF radio apparatus. RSS-210 deals only with radio apparatus, while Interference-Causing Equipment Standards apply to non-radio systems, he said. However, he said for BPL: “We don’t have the standard that is specifically applicable… and that’s what we are in fact looking for.”
Among the significant policy issues, Brien said, are striking a balance between promoting a new wireline system and ensuring minimal interference to radio users; what regulation, if any, to impose on ISPs using the BPL platform; and open access. Regulators will also need to consider whether “we can entertain some form of support, what kind and level of intervention can the government make, whether we regulate heavily or minimally, and whether we regulate only on the actual equipment on an emission level. This [consideration] is actually going on now.” Although some of the issues resemble those the FCC might tackle, Canadian regulators would have to address them differently “because of our process,” he said. Besides spectrum and policy issues to be dealt with by Industry Canada and Canadian Radio-TV & Telecom Commission (CRTC), industry officials expect BPL to be scrutinized by the agency responsible for electric safety issues.
Canada has 3 times the broadband penetration rate of the U.S., so “there’s not much of a demand here,” said Dave Dobbin, COO of Telecom Ottawa and Canadian representative of the United Telecom Council when asked about lack of enthusiasm among Canadian utilities for BPL: “We are far ahead. Some big Canadian cities like Ottawa and Toronto have 100% penetration,” meaning availability. Dobbin didn’t see BPL offering advantages to customers over cable or DSL. “There is none we can see,” said Dobbin: “It’s just another way to get into the home.” U.S. BPL providers have been touting BPL’s accessibility directly from any electric outlet in the home and obviating the need for a telephone connection. He said he didn’t foresee any major regulatory moves in Canada other than what’s being done on the radio emissions. “It’s not like the FCC, we have a different regulatory regime here.” Brien attributed the slow pace of BPL trials to Canada’s few major power utilities, which “are quite big entities. BPL was just something they were looking at and now they are catching up.” He said the U.S. environment is different because of its “very, very pro- business oriented competitive environment, and some independent utilities rely on such an environment.”
“They [regulators] are not exactly renowned for speed,” said Martin Wyant, gen. mgr. of PUC Telecom, which is awaiting Industry Canada clearance for commercial BPL deployment. “Our gear has been waiting in Boston, ready to go and we are anxious to get it in play.” He said PUC invited the govt. to do the emission tests, “rather than do it ourselves and be perceived by the amateur radio guys as having an agenda.” He said the technology by Amperion used by PUC enables change of frequency and other settings to deal with any case of interference. “We are waiting for them [Industry Canada] to release the [emission] information that they have gathered so we are able to demonstrate to them how with frequency agility we can address any issue that they may have seen.” Industry Canada’s measurements relate only to emission of BPL under certain conditions and “we haven’t tested the interference mitigation capability” of the PUC equipment, said Brien. “That’s why we call them preliminary tests.”
The other challenge for regulators is that the several manufacturers have different engineering approaches, Brien said, varying in modulation and injection: “So from the engineering point of view each are independent units and each of them has to be looked as a special case.” Asked if his agency was holding up the first commercial BPL deployment by PUC Telecom, he said, “we are talking to them about the regulatory environment… We are working closely with them to make sure that PUC or whichever company that comes afterwards understands the actual regulatory environment in Canada, which is different from the one in the U.S.” The results of emission measurements on PUC Telecom trials conducted by the agency were being “peer reviewed internally” and would be made public after the review, he said. Wyant said he expected guidelines being developed by Industry Canada to resemble those in the U.S. The 2 countries already have harmonized wireless communications standards, he said: “I don’t see why we would take a different path than what’s being done by the FCC.”
Amperion Dir.-Mktg. William Simons said the company was working with other utilities in Canada but he couldn’t provide names or numbers because all of them were covered by non-disclosure agreements. He said Amperion technoloy was a hybrid of BPL and Wi-Fi. “We have used Wi-Fi primarily from a standpoint of safety… and cost… Our implementation avoids the need to come into the home via the power line because we can provide overlapping cells of wireless in an area so that people in various parts of their home can get Wi-Fi access.” The problem with going into the home directly through power lines, he said, was that “you have to go around every transformer… That becomes expensive.”