Conformity Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 15) centered on the removal of interference protection for licensed mobile stations, and the Commission’s rules for measuring interference. ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, who was in court, said “the judges sounded skeptical that interference to mobile stations couldn’t simply be regarded as ‘not harmful’ because it was temporary.” He said that Judge Tatel responded to an FCC statement that ‘mobile stations could simply move,’ by saying that in the case of BPL in Manassas, Virginia for example, you can only get away from the interference by leaving Manassas.’ It wasn’t, he went on to say, like a garage door opener. Sumner added. “In the course of the argument, the FCC’s attorney had to acknowledge that the Commission’s explanations in the BPL proceeding were deficient in a number of respects, although it wasn’t clear that administrative agencies are held to a very high standard in that regard.” The FCC attorney was interrogated by the judges on the Commission’s premise that “a mobile station in a licensed service should not be afforded complete protection from harmful interference just because it can just move away from the interference.” He was also questioned about redacted material from the FCC’s response to the ARRL’s Freedom of Information request. A decision in the case could take three or more months. Interference Enforcement in Question In July, FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein testified at a House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet hearing that “three of the many urgent priorities we face” include the need for “a national broadband strategy to ensure the ubiquitous deployment of affordable, high speed broadband infrastructure to this country.” He said “we must take a hard look at our successes and failures.” C “If the Commission is unable to protect its licensees from harmful interference from BPL now, it is difficult to imagine how it will be able to do so should BPL be more widely deployed in the future.” Sumner concluded his letter by saying “we respectfully submit that BPL has not earned a place in the much-needed Figure 2: Amperion CEO Phillip Hunt gives former FCC Chairman Michael Powell a look at some of his company’s hardware at the Progress Energy trial BPL installation near Raleigh, NC. KTL advert.ai 14/2/07 11:50:14 (Photo courtesy of Gary Pearce KN4AQ, Amateur Radio//Video News.) Giving you the confidence to connect KTL is an accredited testing laboratory specializing in telecoms, IT, electrical and electronic products. KTL offers testing services for DSL, Safety, Environmental, EMC, Wireless and Telecoms to internationally recognized test standards. In addition to the test services KTL also provides compliance management services to assist clients with access to international markets. Our expertise in fixed wire telecommunication technologies makes us a world leader in the testing and evaluation of broadband technologies. KTL is recognized by the DSL Forum as an ITL (independent test laboratory) for DSL interoperability testing. In a letter to Adelstein, ARRL CEO Dave Sumner said called the Commission’s “inexplicable favoritism of BPL in the face of contrary evidence” one of those “failures.” Sumner noted that, according to the Commission’s latest publicly released figures, “of 64,600,000 ‘high-speed’ lines, only about 5000 are BPL. This is a share of 0.008 percent, a share that actually declined in the six-month period between reports.” ARRL’s concern, Sumner said, is that “even at the very low level of deployment that exists to date, the FCC’s enforcement efforts have proved to be woefully inadequate to address ongoing cases of harmful interference from BPL systems.” Sumner pointed to one example of documented interference caused by Ambient Corporation’s Briarcliff Manor, New York installation, where interference problems have persisted for more than three years without correction and without penalty to the system operator. M Y CM MY CY CMY K 4701 Patrick Henry Drive, Building 19, Santa Clara CA 95054, USA. T +1 (408) 850 4489 F +1 (408) 855 0686 E info@ktl.com www.ktl.com December 2007 conformity 15 http://www.ktl.com http://www.ktl.com
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