Re: [RFI] BPL Protest Opportunity? Give up? NO!

[david jordan <wa3gin@erols.com>]

Folks,

It won't matter if you are correct in your science. I think you are and 
I think you do have a good case.  But I also think your case is missing 
some salent  points. The FCC has to deal with telecom technology but 
this agency is market driven and the ultimate mandate for them has to do 
with what would be good for the general population and how that relates 
to the security of the national infrastructure.  I think your sum 
arguement could be improved regarding the the later.  Remember this is 
the agency that count's how many Americans have wired phone lines. This 
is the agency that imposed fees on all of us that use phone service to 
help pay for rural phone services, etc.  It's mandate in the 21st 
century is to get data/Internet to the masses.

The FCC is just reflecting what the BPL lobby has stated in their 
marketing efforts and this is how the FCC works with technology that is 
disruptive.  I think all the chest beating about potential RFI is wasted 
effort.  Our energy is focused on the wrong aspect of the discussion. 
The FCC may well be comfortable blowing off amateur radio.  What it 
can't afford to do is support a technology that will be dead on 
arrival.  Argue the big picture. Stop fighting over the outhouse or 
you'll loose the farm!

What you could really use is a know Technology authority, such as 
Gartner Consulting, to provide a response that talks to the viability 
and ROI for BPL. A paper that exposes the severe security faults in the 
proposed application, not from debatable RFI concerns but from a 
perspective that this proposed service is just not going to be robust 
enough for use by governments, infrastructure industries and small, 
mid-size or Fortune 500 businesses, etc. At best this BPL is be a "Blade 
Runner" street people low tier service. People that use BPL will have to 
live with the fact that this service will suffer from poor availability 
due to power outages and high error rates due to RFI produced by other 
RF sources, etc. Those are significant down sides that aggressive small 
businesses, mid-size or even Fortune 500 companies will not accept.  So, 
where is the market for BPL when you subtract those entities?

Practical example:

Because BPL is transported via power lines it is not going to be the 
choice of governments (Federal, State, County or Local) simply because 
those entities will require something much more reliable (fiber, 
wireless, etc.)  Here in Alexandria and Arlington, VA. when the electric 
power goes out, and it goes out frequently, the cable system goes down 
as well and if I was a BPL customer that too would be out of service 
while wireless would remain a viable communications path.  When the 
power is out in my town there is a glow coming from the windows in my 
home, it's the light from my wireless laptop (running on battery) linked 
to my wireless ISP.  I use it as a flash light as I move from room to 
room Instant Messaging friends, talking on Echolink, or talking on my 
amateur radio Internet remote station located 60 miles away where the 
power is on.  You can't do that with cable or BPL if the power is out.  
So, that being the case a massive portion of the potential market for 
BPL doesn't really exist. What customer in their right mind is going to 
switch from high availability to poor just for a $10/month break in 
price.  We know the price differential won't last which eliminates that 
BPL marketing benefit. So, no cost benefit, poor availability and 
endless intermitent high error rates and blank outs. Doesn't sound like 
a viable offering to me. 

I haven't said much about copper because it just can't deliver the band 
width.  Maybe this is why Verizon is installing fiber to the house in 
Arlington, VA. They're making massive profits on their wireless offering 
(somthing around five time the cost to deliver) and it appears they are 
going after the "tethered" market. I don't like monopolies but fiber to 
the house is hard to beat!  The question really is which technology will 
win the day, fiber or wireless. For the near term I think wireless will 
take the lead (survey how many of your friends under 25yrs old have 
wired phone service - not many, if any).  The copper guys are well aware 
of the migration of voice traffic to wireless. They think they can 
regain that business if they offer fat band to the home. Bundle telco, 
TV, data on a fiber to the house and capture the rest of the market with 
fat band wireless. If I was an investor non of my money would be in BPL 
and I'll be watching my investments in cable and get out when the 
tipping point gets a bit closer. In a few years wireless data offerings 
will settledown and we'll be able to see a clear direction as to who the 
players will be.  At the moment Nextel is testing Flarion technology 
(5mbps wireless data) which could blow out T-mobile's current wireless 
offering.  With this type of competition wireless services are only 
going to get better and better.

Wireless is the near and mid-term future and that is not arguable! The 
newpaper writers talk about us ham radio operators playing with old 
fashioned technology...haha thethered BPL is worse, at least we're wireless!

Best of luck,
dave
wa3gin

Michael Tope wrote:

> Well said, Rob. The main thing is to stick with the facts. We
> have a very good case to make. The BPL proponents DO
> NOT. 
>
>  


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