Clifford Hauser, KD6XH, ARRL Section Manager, Arizona

As reported in the Arizona Republic on December 19, 2004, in an article entitled "New outlet for the Internet--Power lines may soon be the next vehicle to deliver high-speed Internet service and phone calls," a trial is now underway in Cottonwood, Arizona, involving broadband over power line (BPL) Internet access. According to this article:

"Arizona Public Service Co. is now testing the technology in Cottonwood with partners Mountain Telecommunications Inc. and Electric Broadband LLC. Tentatively, APS would provide the lines, Mountain Telecommunications would sell the service and Electric Broadband would contribute the equipment and operate the system.

"The group is working to solve interference problems that have drawn complaints from the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association."

In order to provide Broadband over Power Line World reader/listeners with more detailed information about those efforts to resolve interference problems, BPLW interviewed two amateur radio operators with first-hand knowledge of the situation in Cottonwood.

You can hear the comments of these two amateur radio operators in an earlier Broadband over Power Line World article entitled "Clifford Hauser, KD6XH, ARRL Section Manager, Arizona, and Robert Shipton, K8EQC, VP, Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association, discuss BPL interference issues in Cottonwood, Arizona," by clicking here.

Getting comments from those institutions responsible, according to the Arizona Republic article, for running the BPL trial, however, has not been as easy as it was to get the views of those worried about RF interference from that trial.

On Monday, December 20, 2004, Susan Smith, a spokesperson for Mountain Telecommunications, Inc., (MTI) referred to in the article as the company that "would sell the service," told Broadband over Power Line World that, due to a confidentiality agreement in place between MTI and the Arizona Public Service Company (APS), she couldn't comment on any aspect of the relationship between the two companies or the nature and extent, or any problems associated with, the BPL trial in Cottonwood.

On the next day, Tuesday, December 21, 2004, a spokesperson for APS, External Communications Manager Alan Bunnell, left a voice mail for Broadband over Power Line World in which he said that APS was "not invested" in BPL technology, that APS is merely "watching the industry," that APS is "not into the business" of supplying BPL, but that it is willing to let others "use the lines" to offer that service.

Efforts over the next few days to contact and interview Mr. Bunnell directly foundered, as he was said to have left on vacation as of Wednesday, December 22, 2004.

As for the third partner in the Cottonwood BPL provisioning team, Electric Broadband, LLC, you can access a March 12, 2004, press release announcing its agreement with Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc., to "jointly engage in the development, marketing and support of broadband-over-powerline (BPL) solutions that bring broadband internet access to homes through standard electrical lines" by clicking here.

Clicking on the hyperlink in that press release that supposedly leads to additional information about Electric Broadband, LLC, however, yields something of a dead end, in the form of a notice that says, "Account for domain electricbroadband.com has been suspended.

Electric Broadband, LLC, is the holder of the "Experimental Radio Station Construction Permit and License" issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorizing the broadband over power line trial in "Cottonwood (YAVAPAI), AZ." This license explicitly requires that the "Licensee [Electric Broadband, LLC] must establish and maintain a liaison relationship with the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association."

However, on Wednesday, December 22, 2004, Lance Rosen, president of Plexeon Logistics, Inc., one of the principals in Electric Broadband, LLC, told Broadband over Power Line World that while Electric Broadband, LLC, was involved in setting up the Cottonwood BPL deployment, it is no longer part of the operation there. Broadband Electric, LLC, he said, was "a joint venture" that is now "not involved" in the Cottonwood broadband BPL trial.

If the FCC license to operate the Cottonwood BPL test deployment was issued to a company no longer involved in that project, whose Internet domain has been "suspended," if Arizona Public Service Company is only providing its lines and isn't otherwise part of this endeavor, and if Mountain Telecommunications, Inc., is prohibited by the terms of its agreement with APS from discussing any aspect of the experiment, who is there to defend this project against the well-documented complaints of local amateur radio operators that the deployment is generating "harmful interference" with their FCC-licensed radio operations?