U.S. RURAL BROADBAND STRATEGY THREATENS FIRE & POLICE VHF COMMS
Low-band VHF communications used by rural police, fire and other "first responder" agencies, would suffer interference if BPL were implemented across American rural areas as part of the US Government's call for a rural broadband strategy, says the ARRL.
Radio amateurs would also suffer, particularly mobile operators, because rural power lines follow road routes.
Development of a national broadband plan aimed at ". . . ensuring access to advanced telecommunications and information services to all Americans, with a special focus on rural and hard-to-serve areas", is part of the US Government's strategy to defibrilate its economy.
The herd of elephants grazing in that paddock are the promoters of broadband over powerline (BPL) technologies.
The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, aka the 2008 Farm Bill, called for a comprehensive rural broadband strategy, which policy was reinforced in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that, among a host of other actions, required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop a comprehensive national broadband plan.
In response to the FCC inviting public comment during March 2009 on the Farm Bill's requirements, the ARRL lobbed them a well-roasted potato about the limitations of BPL and its use of RF signalling.
While reaffirming their support of broadband opportunities in rural areas, the ARRL warned, firstly, of the prohibitive limitations of the cost of large numbers of line repeaters and couplers necessary to service widely spaced subscribers, and the likelihood of interference to low-band VHF mobile communications of "first responder" rural agencies, including police and fire.
The FCC rules on BPL interference mitigation are inadequite, the ARRL pointed out.
Get the full story here: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/03/28/10731/?nc=1
Posted in the interests of maintaining an eye on developments.
73, Roger Harrison VK2ZRH