ARRL Prevails Against FCC in Court

Just when the Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) drama was getting extremely boring, the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC ruled in favor of the ARRL, which filed suit against the FCC. Back in May 2007, the ARRL filed an appeal concerning the FCC's sloppy rule making in determining BPL regulations. Today the court ruled that the FCC failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act because they did not disclose all of the documents that they used to make their decisions. It seems that the court concluded that the FCC needed to disclose all of the data available, not just the parts that served their agenda. Also, the court concluded that the FCC did not adequately explain why they chose a 40-dB extrapolation factor (when there was evidence that 20 dB is the right factor).

Read the ARRL story here and the court decision here. This is a signficant loss for the FCC and they have some explaining to do.

Of course, none of this matters since BPL is dying a slow death anyway.

73, Bob K0NR