SB QST @ ARL $ARLB019
ARLB019 FCC extends reply comment deadline in BPL proceeding

ZCZC AG19
QST de W1AW  
ARRL Bulletin 19  ARLB019
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington CT  May 28, 2004
To all radio amateurs 

SB QST ARL ARLB019
ARLB019 FCC extends reply comment deadline in BPL proceeding

The FCC has extended the deadline to file reply comments (comments
on filed comments) in its broadband over power line (BPL) Notice of
Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), ET Docket 04-37, to Tuesday, June 22.
The FCC acted this week on a request from the National Antenna
Consortium and the Amherst Alliance (NAC/Amherst) for a much longer
filing deadline extension. The organizations said the June 1 reply
comment deadline FCC would not allow stakeholders adequate time to
prepare comments that address the full two-part National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Phase 2 BPL
study. The FCC said the NTIA has indicated that it soon will submit
comments and a technical appendix that will include key findings of
the Phase 2 report, which is due for release later this year.

NAC/Amherst had sought to have the FCC postpone the filing comment
deadline until either September 1 or two months after the public
release of the NTIA's Phase 2 study--whichever was later. The FCC
said, however, that the additional three weeks should be ''ample
time'' to respond to the anticipated NTIA submission, provided it's
filed reasonably close to the anticipated May 28 date.

Noting that its Part 15 rules already permit Access BPL systems and
that its February BPL NPRM places additional requirements on BPL
systems over and above current Part 15 requirements, the FCC
asserted that any further delay would diminish the Commission's
ability to protect licensed users now occupying the HF spectrum. A
further extension, the FCC added, also would ''needlessly increase
regulatory uncertainty'' about BPL.

The FCC turned down a request that the FCC reissue in substantially
greater detail the provisions of its proposed BPL rules concerning
interference prevention and mitigation and the enforcement of
standards.

The FCC does not routinely grant such time extensions, and it denied
earlier petitions, including filings from the ARRL and NAC/Amherst,
to extend the initial May 3 comment filing deadline.
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