The following email is reproduced with permission of Justin Giles-Clark.

-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Giles-Clark
Sent: Thursday, 13 May 2004 11:51 PM
To: "Hartwig, Geoff"
Subject: BPL Trial in Hobart

Greetings Geoff,

Members from the Southern Branch of the Tasmanian Division of the Wireless
Institute of Australia met with Piero Peroni and Adrian Wild from Aurora
Energy to discuss their trial of BPL/PLC in the Hobart CBD and Piero passed
on your contact details.

At the meeting a presentation about the trial was given by Piero and Adrian
and after the presentation we were able to have an open, frank and positive
discussion where we expressed our concern about BPL technology and Aurora
expressed their reasons for trialling the technology. Aurora was happy to
keep us informed about developments, futures trials, etc.

We also expressed our disappointment in the limited underground trial and
they acknowledged these limitations and that this trial is not the decision
maker for their BPL business case. They outlined during the presentation
that they are also investigating wireless technologies and fibre optics as
strategies for delivering the last mile of broadband to consumer and have
not made their mind up on any of them as yet.

We were fortunate to have Barry McCann from the Coast Radio Hobart in
attendance. Barry runs the HF marine frequency (2, 4, 6, 8 MHz) emergency
monitoring station down here in Tassie. He expressed his concern about
interference and the possible raising of the noise floor with the wider
introduction of BPL.

They passed on some helpful presentations from an international conference
they recently attended on PLC as well as the presentation they gave. We also
gave them an audible demonstration of the interference from a portable HF
receiver.

We are hoping to try and arrange a meeting with the Mitsubishi engineers to
further discuss the technology and what it's capability and configurability
is in relation to notching out particular frequencies and Piero steered us
in your direction to see if we could be involved in some way when the
engineers return?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

----------------------------------------
73 de VK7TW Justin Giles-Clark
Southern Branch President
Tasmanian Division of the
Wireless Institute of Australia
http://www.wia.org.au/vk7/


And now the reply from the ACA!!!!!!!!!
================================================== ==========================
============
From: "Hartwig, Geoff"
To: Justin Giles-Clark
Subject: BPL Trial in Hobart
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 16:38:27 +1000

Justin

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the broadband power line (BPL) trial in
Hobart and your request to become involved in this trial. I must apologise
for the delay in responding.

Before addressing your specific request, I wish to first raise the following
matters regarding the BPL issue.

It is widely recognised that broadband is emerging to provide a unifying
platform for three converging sectors: computing, communications and
broadcasting. Many countries are increasingly recognised the significant
role broadband access will play in promoting economic, social and cultural
developments.

In this regard, BPL is an emerging technology that has potential to play a
significant role in improving broadband access to the general public.
Additionally, the availability of the technology may also prompt the
electricity distribution industry to enter the Australian telecommunications
broadband market and contribute to the expansion of the national broadband
network.

Much debate about BPL has focused on the extent of possible interference
this technology may cause MF/HF radiocommunications services. There are
widely differing views on the likely extent of interference. Study programs
are currently underway in the European Union and United States to better
understand the electromagnetic emission characteristics of BPL systems and
their likely interaction with MF/HF radio reception. Such knowledge will
assist in developing strategies to minimise interference to existing
radiocommunications services.

However the results of overseas studies may not be applicable to the
Australian situation because of possible differences in both the electricity
distribution systems and the MF/HF environment. There is a need for a BPL
studying in the Australian context. In this regard, the ACA is working
towards organising a study.

In line with overseas activities, local power utilities are investigating
the potential of BPL technology. At this stage, there are no firm plans to
commercially deploy BPL technology in Australia.

In the mean time, the challenge for the ACA is to establish regulatory
arrangements that do not unnecessarily block deployments but at the same
time provide reasonable measures to adequately protect radiocommunications
reception.

The ACA's strategy for managing BPL services is in its formative stages and
will be largely governed by regional and international developments. I would
like to assure you that in the development of BPL regulatory arrangements,
the amateur fraternity and other stakeholders will be consulted.

With respect to the Hobart trial, the ACA attended as invited guests of
Aurora and there are no plans by this organisation to examine the frequency
notching capability of the Mitsubishi equipment at this trial. The ACA is
conscious that Aurora is running to a tight schedule and the ACA would not
wish to impose interruptions.

As mentioned previously, the ACA is working towards a BPL study which would,
amongst other matters, include frequency notching.

If you require additional information, please contact me.

Regards

Geoff Hartwig

--
*Eliminate Qru, Qrt & Broadband over Power Lines to ragchew!
**Stephen Newlyn, VK5VKA. G'day from the City of Elizabeth, South Australia.
***Visit the "Stop BPL" page
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~vk5vka/stopbpl.htm
****Visit my Home Page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~vk5vka/index.html


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