[SARC] ARRL v. FCC, BPL Case

[Dave - KB4ET]

OK, here's my opinion; I am a lawyer, but please
don't anyone treat this as legal advice, and it's
just my personal opinion, not that of my client.

It is rather unusual for a court to come down as hard
on an Agency as the Court did on the FCC here -
usually courts have a hands off attitude that assumes
that agencies have expertise and discretion and so
give technical agencies a very long leash.

The result here is a clear "yellow light" in terms of
the status of the FCC's actions regarding BPL, and
thus a yellow light for any present or contemplated
BPL build-outs.  Whether that FCC light will go green
or red later after further FCC action and/ or
potential additional court reviews is too early to
say, but it'll be yellow for a fair while.  As others
(including the League) have accurately and
articulately stated, BPL is a technically and
financially marginal technology whose economies and
performance have been or soon stand to be eclipsed by
any number of other technologies, whether those are
fiber, cable, or even rural wireless technologies
(which I have had since last summer and am happy as
heck with).  Take a technologically and financially
marginal technology such as BPL (especially in the
now-tipsy economy) and combine it with this
court-ordered yellow light, and investors will be
rushing towards it less than ever- while other
broadband technologies that are already rolling out,
and that do not pollute the RF spectrum, will
continue to roll out, creating less and less eventual
potential market for BPL.

Despite the folks who'll always take issue with the
League on something or other, I think ARRL deserves a
standing ovation for their work on this case and
their other efforts regarding BPL.  Had the League
not made the efforts it has, BPL might have gotten a
foothold already, despite its various flaws
(including but not limited to RF pollution), and then
we'd be on a bad footing.

The yellow light also gives increased bargaining
power to ask BPL equipment makers and others to take
some of the steps, as a few BPL developers have, to
definitively prevent HF interference.

Vigilance __definitely__ remains in order, but in the
legal and regulatory world, keeping the regulatory
status quo in your relative favor, which the ARRL has
managed to do relative to BPL, is __much__ more of a
victory, not only now, but over time, than probably
first meets the layperson's eye.

anyway, that's my $0.02 squared...

73
Trevor
KD1YT


------- Original Message -------
 From    : Chuck Gooden[mailto:Chuck.Gooden at comcast.net]
Sent    : 4/28/2008 6:40:15 PM
To      : kd1yt at pshift.com
Cc      :
Subject : RE: Re: ARRL v. FCC, BPL Case

  So what does this really, really, really mean....BPL
is still going....

I realize the next step must be taken by the FCC but
maybe some of the
lawyers could speculate what that might be and
possible put it into
layman terms.  Couldn't the FCC just have anothor
comment period after
releasing all data.  Possibly they would give their
opponents some ammo,
but maybe not.

It seems this is just a small bump in the long road
ahead.
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