BPL a Danger to Amateur Radio?

Today we received some comments by email from Allen G. Pitts, media and public relations manager for the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), in response to a news release that appeared on our TMCnet Web site:

Internet America, HILCO & Amperion Announce Strategic Partnership to Offer Broadband Over Power Line Service

I should point out that this was not an article by TMCnet but a press release submitted to our site by Internet America or one of its representatives.

I thought it would be worthwhile to quote out Pitts's comments as a kind of "op-ed" on the BPL issue:

"In your recent article on Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) "Internet America, HILCO & Amperion Announce Strategic Partnership to Offer Broadband Over Power Line Service," there were many claims made. Such sweeping statements may have a place in the marketing information of the BPL manufacturers, but there is another aspect of BPL that is not mentioned in the press release: radio interference. ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, has participated in testing in a number of the BPL marketing trials and has seen interference to radio reception in each of the sites their staff and volunteers have examined. In many cases, BPL proponents pronounce their marketing trials as being “successful,” but to ARRL’s knowledge, no BPL trial has included a thorough examination of interference issues, so it is premature to pronounce these tests to be a success.

"Even Chairman Powell of the FCC, one of the most vocal proponents of BPL, admitted the seriousness of the interference issues. Simply put, there is no way that radio frequency signals are going to stay contained in a wire designed to carry normal electric power. It will radiate and pollute the radio spectrum. The FCC’s October 2004 Report & Order recognized this danger to communications and totally barred the BPL companies from using frequencies associated with aeronautics and other governmental agencies. Obviously, these concerns about interference and spectrum pollution were not seen as trivial or resolved by the FCC. For the rest of the radio community, there is the FCC promise that if a licensed system experiences harmful interference due to BPL in the area, the BPL provider must either fix it in a timely way or shut their system down.

"Your article also did not address the reverse problem of interference to BPL by licensed, legally operating radio systems. Since BPL will be using radio frequencies, it is likely that BPL service will be slowed or even stopped by radio transmissions in the area. Tests have been done by Amateur Radio operators that show that even a few watts of transmitter power nearby can cause the BPL system to temporarily stop working.

"Amateur Radio Operators are not against BPL. In fact, hams have historically been one of the first groups to adopt new technologies and possibilities. What the amateur operators and many other radio user groups are so concerned about is the pollution of wide areas of the radio spectrum by interference from BPL. And, when it comes to radio interference, who would YOU listen to: the FCC and experienced radio operators, or your local electric company?"

For more information about why many amateur radio users are concerned about the deployment of BPL, you can visit this page at the ARRL Web site.

AB -- 12/23/04