Bit of BPL News
 

From the ARRL Letter:

VIRGINIA CITY, BPL PROVIDER PART WAYS; PEPCO OPTS OUT OF BPL INVESTMENT

The City of Manassas, Virginia, and broadband over power line (BPL)
franchisee Prospect Street Broadband have parted company, and the city is
seeking a new business partner. The decision to terminate the joint
venture was mutual, according to city officials, and the city has acquired
Prospect Street's interests. Manassas was planning to open bids from
prospective replacement BPL providers June 7.

ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, called the failure of the Prospect
Street-Manassas deal just another example of a BPL deployment decision
gone awry. He also predicted that BPL would not prove to be the revenue
generator the city anticipates. Under the franchise agreement, Manassas
receives 10.5 percent of BPL revenue and is responsible only for the
relatively small cost of equipment installation. The failure of the
franchise agreement leaves the city with obligations that far exceed
revenues, however.

The first municipally owned utility to offer citywide BPL, Manassas has
changed the name of its project from the Broadband over Powerline
Enterprise to the Telecommunications Services Enterprise. City budget
documents indicate that Manassas is prepared to loan $400,000 to the
Telecommunications Services Enterprise Fund "to finance operating
expenses" in Fiscal Year 2005.

The city's small BPL field trial involved fewer than a dozen homes and
businesses in an area with underground utility wiring and no nearby
Amateur Radio licensees. "Results of the eighteen-month pilot program were
favorable and demonstrated BPL as a viable technology for the delivery of
data services," the city's bid invitation declares. The city approved
full-scale BPL deployment last October and started offering the service in
February. The contract with Prospect Street Broadband apparently was
terminated several weeks later.

The city's glowing pro-BPL comments on the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rule
Making in ET Docket 04-37, filed May 3, neglect to mention the
cancellation of the Prospect Street agreement.

The comments also say the city "remains sensitive" to Amateur Radio's
interference fears. Manassas Utilities Director Allen P. Todd, W4VUB, has
met with members of the Ole Virginia Hams (OVH) Amateur Radio Club to
address their concerns, the comments note, and a BPL connection was set up
in the home of OVH member Bob Zaepfel, K4HJF. The city made a letter from
Todd describing its efforts to cooperate with local amateurs part of its
comments to the FCC. That letter says that during informal tests in early
April, OVH members were "unable to identify any interference in the
amateur bands being caused by BPL installation." Todd's letter did not
provide test details.

The Manassas Journal Messenger reported this week that two neighborhoods
now are fully equipped for the service, and, to date, 200 customers are
using the service, although the bid proposal says the city's deployment of
BPL "passes more than 2000 homes with the fiber infrastructure passing
more than 4,000 homes, and fiber construction continuing each day."
Manassas charges $28.95 a month for its BPL service. The city is supposed
to complete its citywide BPL rollout by this fall. City officials told the
Journal Messenger that the Prospect Street contract termination will not
affect BPL delivery.

Elsewhere, Pepco, a utility serving 700,000 Washington, DC, and Maryland
customers, and its parent company, Pepco Holdings Inc, have decided to
forgo any investment in BPL. Pepco continues to operate a BPL field test
in Potomac, Maryland. The utility is continuing discussions with BPL
partner Current Technologies and has indicated it's open to proposals to
lease access to their power lines to deliver broadband service.

Pepco was said to be less interested in delivering broadband than in
finding ways to improve its billing systems. A company spokesperson said
the decision not to invest in BPL applies to all Pepco Holdings Inc
companies.

Additional information on BPL and video clips from field trial sites are
on the ARRL Web site http://www.arrl.org/bpl/.