Attention All Amateurs ...
League Views BPL Manufacturer's Interference Abatement Efforts with
Interest
A demonstration at ARRL Headquarters of DS2 BPL
equipment suggests the manufacturer is working to minimize--if not
altogether eliminate--interference from its products on amateur bands,
ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, says. Hare met with two DS2
officials earlier this month to discuss the company's improved approach to
Amateur Radio band notching techniques. Based upon his observations during
a demonstration of DS2's latest generation G2 technology, Hare says he's
cautiously optimistic. A spectrum analyzer check of the modem's output
showed the G2 modem could attain a notch depth of up to 40 dB.
Maryland utility ends limited BPL pilot
The Southern
Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) has ended a limited broadband over
power line (BPL) pilot project, concluding that the technology is not yet
ready for prime time in its service area. "At this time, SMECO believes
that BPL technology needs to advance further before it can meet the needs
of our customers," the utility said in its March customer newsletter,
Cooperative Review. "BPL signal speeds and bandwidth are not competitive
with other technologies currently available." The ARRL is unaware of any
radio frequency interference complaints related to the SMECO BPL test,
which ran from April through December 2005. The pilot program used Current
Technologies equipment, which has shown to be among the BPL systems having
less potential to interfere with Amateur Radio than others. The utility
also cited safety concerns, the impact of BPL on the co-op's current
construction practices and "the lack of a proven method for delivering BPL
signals via underground power lines," which make up 60 percent of SMECO's
power grid. The utility further noted that currently available BPL
hardware is not remotely programmable, something it would need to offer
such services as pay-per-view programming, and that should the power grid
get knocked out, BPL service would go down with it. A member-owned
electric co-op, SMECO serves more than 130,000 customers in four Southern
Maryland counties.
Attention All Amateurs ...
Arizona BPL Field Trial Ends
A BPL field trial in
Cottonwood, Arizona, that drew complaints from Amateur Radio operators
from 2004 until earlier this year apparently has shut down for good. The
small system, which Mountain Telecommunications Inc (MTI) operated under
FCC Part 5 Experimental license WD2XMB, went silent this month. The Part 5
license, renewed last November, stipulates that the company "establish and
maintain" a relationship with the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association
(VVARA), which called for the system's shutdown as recently as last
December. According to VVARA BPL Committee Chair Bob Shipton, K8EQC, MTI
initially took the system down for a firmware upgrade but subsequently
told him that it was discontinuing the experimental operation in
Cottonwood and moving it.
FCC statistics suggest minuscule market share for BPL
The latest FCC statistics on the status of high-speed Internet services indicate a minuscule market share
for broadband over power line (BPL). The FCC Wireline Bureau report, "High-Speed Services for Internet
Access: Status as of June 30, 2005," puts at 4872 the number of business and residential "Power Line
and Other" connections that deliver at speeds greater than 200 kbps in at least one direction. The total
number of high-speed lines for all technologies is 42,866,469--the vast majority DSL, cable and traditional
wireline connections. This puts the share for "Power Line and Other" at a bit more than 0.01 percent of the
total. The number of residential BPL "advanced services" lines--greater than 200 kbps in both directions--is
3916 out of 34,259,411, the FCC report indicates. Although some data have been withheld as proprietary,
the FCC report indicates there are 18 "Power Line and Other" high-speed providers nationwide. Facilities-
based broadband providers must report the number of high-speed connections in service to the FCC twice
a year.
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