K?HB wrote on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:59:36 EDT:

On Jun 18, 3:56 am, Phil Kane wrote:

My personal opinion is that BPL will self-destruct on economic grounds
if we amateurs can just hold out long enough.

snip

In five years BPL with be nothing more than a footnote in some telecom
technical journals as a dead-end technological curiosity which never
made a dime. Last time I checked there were less than 8,000 paid and
'demonstration' subscribers, and the number was dwindling.

The June 2007 issue of the IEEE Spectrum has a Special Report which
is over-titled "By 2008 More Than Half Of The World's Population Will
Live In Urban Areas." Note "world's population," not just the USA.
That further reduces some (mythical?) need to bring the Internet-
structure to rural users, the popular rationale for BPL...as touted by
the
FCC Commissioners of the recent regime. Meanwhile most of those
"isolated" rural users are doing just fine with their POTS.

Here in southern six-land there is intense competition among the cable
TV providers to offer high-speed Internet connectivity (768 KBPS on
the
cheapest plan) using the already-installed cable TV "wires." Much of
the Greater Los Angeles area and adjoining foothill communities are
already so "wired." We don't need subcarriers on AC primary power
lines to carry even low-speed Internet.

Meanwhile every second issue of QST contains another confrontational
"It seems to us" K1ZZ jeremiad about BPL, we see ARRL President W5ZN
sending huffy letters to the FCC Chairman, ARRL has challenged the
Commission in Federal court, and now a ham in Congress is pushing for
a Bill to have a Congressional "study" of the matter.. All this over
an issue that is already dying a quiet death-by-apathy on the part of
the commercial telecommunications community.

Ah, but BPL very definitely remains a clear and present danger to HF
radio users. SOMEONE has to carry the banner of Forces Against
BPL. We can't ask the apathetic to do it...they have, well, too much
apathy to do it.

However, the forces that be at Newington are feeling the mortality
symptoms of their organization. They feel they must DO SOMETHING
now that they no longer have the clout with the FCC they've always
assumed was theirs. They may not have received an onslaught of
New Members as a result of the revolutionary effect of 06-178. They
seem worried, thus all the more reason to SAY something to prove
they still "have what it takes to lead their membership."

But, I agree with you that they've gone over-the-top in their
response.

Sincerely, Len AF6AY