FCC BPL Rules Protect Licensed Services, Interveners Tell Court
The FCC has proved that broadband over power line (BPL) poses no “realistic threat” of harmful interference to amateur radio, several intervenors for the Commission told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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Opposing an American Radio Relay League petition for review, they said Commission rules provide an “extra layer of safeguards” and obligations to protect licensed services, including ham radio. The intervenors are BPL companies Ambient Corporation and Current Technologies, Manassas City, Va., Duke Energy and the Utilities Telecom Council.
Many protections are unique to BPL, such as requiring BPL operators to make available a public database of installations and to reduce emissions by large amounts on any frequencies where interference were to occur, the intervenors said. “No other unlicensed device is subject to this kind of provision,” they said. The League challenge, based on parts of Section 301 of the Telecom Act, rests on the belief that BPL will cause harmful interference to licensed devices, they said. But contrary to that argument, the rules do not contemplate harmful interference by BPL to licensed devices, they said. And if it occurs, the FCC has provided for ways to report and remedy it.
The League, backed by the National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service TV, said the Commission dismissed without justification a suggestion that it confine BPL to a band of frequencies not used by amateurs or TV stations, the intervenors said. But the FCC “adequately explained” that the constraints the League and broadcasters want would hurt BPL performance or discourage deployment. BPL advances public policy on communications, energy, environment and homeland security, they said.