BPL INDUSTRY SEES REGULATORY ISSUES SHIFTING TO STATES

摘要

With the FCC having 揹one its job?providing 揼ood?broadband over powerline (BPL) rules, the regulatory picture shifts to the states, said Brett Kilbourne, regulatory dir. of the United Power Line Council. 揙verall we have gotten tremendous support from Congress and the FCC,?he said in an interview on C-SPAN. But now it抯 the states that can make 揵ig difference?in spurring deployment, he said. State-level regulatory certainty makes a big difference in BPL deployments, he said, citing Tex. and Cal. A Tex. law promotes BPL; that encouraged Current Communications to start a BPL project in Dallas passing 2 million homes that will roll out starting in Q3, Kilbourne said. Cal. streamlined rules on using utility assets to provide BPL, he said. Besides a couple of commercial deployments, the U.S. has 50 ongoing BPL trials, he said. Worldwide, BPL customers number 170,000, 10,000 of them in the U.S.