BPL is short for Broadband Over Power Lines. It is also known as Power Line Communications, or PLC in some places.
Essentially, BPL is high speed internet access/service delivered by way of existing electrical power lines. It is envisioned to provide consumers with a third option for broadband internet access, in addition to cable internet service and a phone company's high speed DSL (digital subscriber line) service.
BPL technology is based on using the 2-80 MHz (megahertz) range of the radio frequency spectrum to transmit data over large powerline arrays. In doing so, BPL will emit enormous amounts of radio frequency interference across lots of frequencies already in use, such as international shortwave and ham radio broadcasts. BPL will put out noise all across the international shortwave broadcasting bands (3-30 MHz), effectively obliterating shortwave radio reception to listeners within the USA.
Also affected will be airline pilots, ship to shore communications, emergency services, lower end TV channels, citizens band (CB) radio, military, police, fire, air traffic control, mobile and AM radio frequencies. Anything operating in the 2-80 MHz range will be affected.
Shortwave radio listeners within the USA will have the toughest time, since BPL will disrupt foreign broadcasts from all over the globe. BPL will ruin large parts of the shortwave radio spectrum within America if pushed ahead quickly and largely implemented across the country by 2007, as envisioned.
Truely, BPL is a clear and present danger to international shortwave broadcasters and listeners all across the world. It is obviously being used as an erected 'firewall' by domestic and international media interests to restrict and censor foreign news and information from reaching American listeners.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been the prime public mover and supporter of BPL in the USA, with its chairman, Michael Powell, recently calling BPL "tremendously exciting" and a "broadband nirvana" for the telecommunications industry. The FCC has also recently voted to allow international media conglomerates the ability to increase their holdings in television stations and newspapers, another signal that fewer and fewer companies will end up controlling more and more of what people hear, see and read.
Internationally, BPL has been tested and halted because of massive radio frequency interference in Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, the Netherlands and other countries. The Austrian Red Cross reported that during an exercise in May 2003, communications were "massively disturbed" by BPL, with intereference levels exceeding the limit by a factor of 10,000. Dietland Hansen, the external chairman of the advisory group on BPL to RegTP, Germany's FCC equivalent, noted, "it suffers the enormous risk of uncontrolled interference to everyone". During test trials of BPL in Britain and Japan, Mr Hansen stated that interference was so strong that they pulled the plug on BPL.
BPL or Broadband Over Power Lines, though a brilliant idea, is too disruptive to broadcasts, transmissions and communications that already occupy and operate within the radio frequency range now in contention. As BPL is seen as a takeover of the entire High Frequency (HF) radio spectrum by a handful of electric utilities subservient to the Bush Administration's love of all things that pollute, so too must efforts be put forth to preserve and protect certain portions of the electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum from the reckless exploitation, damage and pollution of this most unique natural resource.
Steve Jones
P.O. Box 927
Pacific Grove, California
93950
USA
SOURCES:
1. North American Shortwave Association
45 Wildflower Rd
Levittown, Pennsylvania 19057 USA
Website: http://anarc.org/naswa
2. American Radio Relay League (AARL)
225 Main St
Newington, Conneticut 06111 USA
Website: http://www.arrl.org
3. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
445 12th St- NW
Washington, DC 20554 USA
Website: http://www.fcc.gov
4. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
1401 Constitution Ave- NW
Washington, DC 20230 USA
Website: http://www.ntia.doc.gov
5. Grundig Shortwave Radio Corporation
GRUNDIG GERMANY:
Grundig Intermedia Gmbh
Beuthener StraBe 41, D-90471
Nurnberg, Germany, European Union
Website: http://www.grundig.com
* * * * * * * *
ETON AMERICA:
1015 Corporation Way
Palo Alto, California 94303 USA
Website: http://www.grundigradio.com
6. World Wide Christian Radio (WWCR)
1300 WWCR Ave
Nashville, Tennessee 37218 USA
Website: http://www.wwcr.com
7. WBCQ Shortwave Broadcast
97 High St
Kennebunk, Maine 04043 USA
Website: http://www.wbcq.com
8. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Wood Lane, London, W12 7RL
United Kingdom, European Union
Website : http://www.bbcnews.com
9. Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association (PPRAA)
P.O. Box 16521
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80935 USA
Website: http://www.qsl.net/ppraa
