FCC Issues BPL Rules

Companies providing high-speed Internet service over the power lines supported technical rules the FCC released to prevent interference of unlicensed bands with other technologies, saying the regulations remove a layer of uncertainty and don’t present any major hurdles.

In short, the FCC designated certain frequencies service providers using broadband over power line (BPL) technology must entirely avoid. There are other frequencies where BPL providers must stay away only in certain areas, and they also must have the capability to get off a frequency if there is interference. In that event, the commission requires BPL operators to notify licensees about deployments in their areas through a central BPL database.

The frequencies that must be avoided only affect a “miniscule part of the population,” says Power Line Communications Association President Alan Shark.

Amperion Inc., a powerline networking equipment maker, says it was already in compliance with FCC rules and designed its technology to prevent interference. The new regulations are not more stringent, says Amperion spokeswoman Amy Burnis.

The commission’s order marked the conclusion of a nearly two-year rulemaking process, according to CURRENT Communications Group Inc., a BPL provider offering homes and small businesses broadband and VoIP services in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio through a joint venture with Cinergy Corp.

The FCC decision “is as significant as the commission’s decision a decade ago to foster competition in the mobile telephone and video programming businesses, through PCS and direct broadcast satellite licensing,” CURRENT Chairman William Berkman says.

Duke Power, which is conducting a BPL trial in Charlotte, N.C., with AT&T Corp., EarthLink Inc. and LecStar Telecom Inc., also was happy with the FCC ruling, says Duke Power spokesman Tom Williams. Still, Williams says there is more work to be done at the state regulatory commissions.

In October, Duke Power was in the final stages of evaluating its trial. The company is looking into the possibility of becoming a wholesale Internet provider through BPL technology.

Regulators have expressed hope broadband service over the power lines could serve as the third high-speed Internet wire into the home, representing an alternative to DSL and cablemodem lines, and covering a broader area than those technologies.

“By crafting a minimal regulatory framework for BPL, we are advancing Congress’s goal of creating a pro-competitive, deregulatory framework, and the commission’s goal of deploying broadband to every American,” according to a joint statement from FCC Chairman Michael Powell and FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. “Because BPL is a nascent technology and the broadband market has no dominant incumbent service provider, only minimal regulations are appropriate.”

Cable modem is the most dominant broadband technology, representing about 58 percent of all high-speed lines at the end of last year, according to FCC data. ADSL represented 34 percent of lines. The FCC defines high-speed lines as supporting more than 200kbps in at least one direction.

Cable modem represented 75.3 percent of all “advanced services lines” at the end of last year, with ADSL representing 14.9 percent and other technologies accounting for the remaining share, according to the commission. The FCC uses that term to describe services supporting both an upstream and downstream speed of 200kbps or greater.

The FCC says there were 20.3 million advanced services lines at the end of last year, up from 5.9 million lines in June 2001. Still, most Americans don’t have broadband service.

“Because power lines are ubiquitous - reaching virtually every community and every home - BPL systems have the potential to become a last-mile solution throughout the United States,” says FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin in a statement.

“As such, they would not only provide competition to cable broadband and DSL, they could bring Internet access and high-speed broadband to rural and isolated areas.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates the transmission and interstate wholesale sales of electricity, but it is unclear what, if any, jurisdiction the agency would assert over a utility’s wholesale BPL operations. In a press release, FERC Chairman Pat Wood III emphasized the importance of ensuring rules don’t impede the BPL technology.

“This technology holds tremendous potential, not just in providing new avenues for communications services, but in helping electricity systems operate more efficiently and reliably,” he says. “It’s a potential win-win for customers, and the most important thing we can do here in Washington is help make sure existing rules and regulations don’t get in the way of this promising new technology.”

Craig Goodman, president of the National Energy Marketers Association, which represents competitive wholesale and retail natural gas and electricity providers, has asked the FCC to work with FERC to ensure power lines used to transport both electricity and content are opened to all competition. Under Supreme Court precedent, it is clear FERC has authority to mandate open access over the power lines for interstate commerce, Goodman says.

He says his members are not interested in BPL now because they are busy seeking to grow their businesses where states have opened up the electricity and natural gas markets to competition.

But Goodman says the energy marketers could one day use BPL technology to bundle electricity alongside such communications services as IP phone service, video and high-speed Internet access.