FCC adopts rules for broadband over power line

FCC commissioners today unanimously approved rules for broadband over power line (BPL) technology, which policymakers hope will provide the elusive third broadband access line into most U.S. homes and reduce—or eliminate—the need to regulate the industry.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the ubiquity of the U.S. electrical grid means BPL is an ideal platform so that affordable universal broadband can become a reality. It also offers the promise of network-based competition with DSL and cable-modem service as a wired broadband option.

"In addition to universal service, we talk so often about competition--well, here it is," Powell said. "All economists will tell you magic happens when you find the third way."

Indeed many telecommunications officials are citing BPL’s potential as justification for deregulation, claiming that three wired choices and a host of wireless alternatives are more than enough to ensure that no company will dominate the market enough to abuse pricing.

Although he voted for the item, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps questioned whether uncertainty regarding universal-service support and other lingering regulatory questions would undermine BPL investment as they have with other broadband technologies.

"We don’t have a gameplan," Copps said. "Nearly all the other industrialized countries have national broadband strategies, and I don’t know where ours is."

Copps also expressed concern about the potential that captive power customers will be cross-subsidizing a utility company’s venture into the broadband marketplace. But Commissioner Kevin Martin said he is confident the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission—in the audience at the FCC meeting, as a show of support—would protect consumers, while Powell noted that BPL makes electric grids "smart networks" that will improve reliability, service and security.

Certainly the most outspoken opposition to BPL has been the amateur radio community, which has claimed that BPL will create interference with its operations. Powell called amateur radio operators "an important resource" and expressed hope that the rules the FCC has created will protect them, but he said obstructing the deployment of BPL is not an option.

"The potential for the American economy is too great--is too enormous, is too potentially groundbreaking--to sit idly by and allow any claim or any possible speculative fear to keep us from trying to drive this technology and drive America into the broadband future," Powell said.