Technical Topics, March 2004
FCC To Issue Proposed BPL Rules
On February 12 the FCC voted unanimously to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to eventually allow full-scale deployment of BPL in the United States. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the FCC has apparently heard the outcry of users of the short-wave spectrum and has proposed procedures to mitigate interference.
In spite of warnings expressed by entities like FEMA, NTIA, ARRL, NASWA and thousands of individuals, the FCC cheerleaders for BPL technology have decided to charge ahead. Instead of proposing a reduction in Part 15 limits as NASWA requested in its comments, the FCC is proposing to leave the unintentional radiation restrictions as they currently are. The FCC instead proposes placing the burden on licensed services to take action when they experience interference. The good news is that they did not propose to raise the limits at this time as some BPL advocates desired.
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