Their previous work with the development of the HomePlug standard achieved what seems to have been a very workable solution for all involved.

David: We recently covered the Memorandum Opinion and Order adopted by the FCC on August 3rd to reject the requests by interest groups to limit the service. Now, in that coverage, we noted that it's not just the amateur radio community, but the aviation industry and broadcasters who were also petitioning the FCC for controls. Shouldn't we worry that if the aviation industry is concerned about this stuff, we should be, too?

Glenn: Yes, I think that widespread interference in the 4-80 MHz spectrum could impact people who don't normally even know that they care. Not only do many of us use or have connections to those who regularly use the HF spectrum for short wave broadcast listening, public safety and military communications and aviation, but there are less obvious impacts if severe interference were to prevail.

The HF spectrum has some unique characteristics which can't be replaced. The ability to communicate long distances with simple equipment is one of them. Incidentally, it was amateur radio operators who first recognized the value of this spectrum -- at a time when industry and military was occupying lower frequencies because they thought HF was useless.

I'm not certain whether emergency communications from, say, a sailboat in the south seas would necessarily be affected, but it might. Having personally gained so much from having amateur radio as a playground in which to develop my own interest in electronics and engineering, I'd hate to see that eliminated for others.

David: In an earlier article, I posed the question "Where's the money?" Obviously, DS2 has a financial interest in the success of BPL, as does Corridor. Can you explain where the financial interest in BPL is for industry players? Since you're also a radio amateur, and I raised the question about where the ARRL's financial interests lie, perhaps you could also shed some perspective on whether you think the ARRL is approaching this strictly from a technical perspective, or whether there's a financial or political interest here as well?

Glenn: Well, now you're asking a business rather than a technical question and I may be out of my element. However, to the degree that BPL or any other technology truly addresses and significantly solves the last-mile problem, I think there should be a great deal of industry interest. We are in the Information Age and the delivered bit is the coin-of-the-realm for a great many aspects of modern life. It has a profound effect on our work and on our entertainment. It affects almost all of us socially as well as individually.

As new applications continue to cause data rates rise, such that the minimum acceptable rate delivered to the user increases to first several Mbps and then 100 Mbps and beyond, it will be very interesting to see what kind of techniques are used to support them. One very important application for BPL that seems to be driving a lot of the present interest and investment is for improving the operation of the electrical utility companies and the power grid.