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Mark,
And others,
Apologies in advance for a long letter. If you would rather not be the recipient of information on Avista’s BPL Pilot, please reply and I will strike your name from the list. Everyone is in the BCC field to protect them and their privacy. Except Mark, he doesn’t get any privacy. hi.
Everyone on the distribution list is an Amateur; none of them work directly as Avista employees. Bill-WB7UCI and I are both contractors to Avista. I work for EDS – Electronic Data Systems – you know, “that old Ross Perot company.”
I’ve had quite a bit on my plate, and am still dealing with questions regarding the meeting. Just wanted you to know that I’m still on it, just been busy with change of DSL service, email, hunting, etc.. My email address has changed in the background; it is still easiest to use k7pkt-at-arrl.net
and if you know of anyone else who would like to be on the list to receive information regarding Avista’s BPL, please give them my email address.
I am with Qwest now and have space in my mailbox to deal with the issues. I also have web space (25mb) that can be used should we find someone willing to provide webmaster services. My area of expertise - if any - does not lie with web design!
No information sent to me will be forwarded to Avista without approval from the sender. My pledge to each of you. Let me know if it can be sent on.
So, some of the information from the meeting…
Avista understands the implications to the amateur radio bandwidth if BPL is implemented. They are sensitive to the needs of amateurs and their hobby. Avista has long had a strong partnership with ARES/RACES, and has benefited greatly in the past from their work.
Brent understands interference issues, problems right now with some of Avista’s sites. He also mentioned that he has dealt with the FCC from both sides – he understands why they moved bandwidth aside for the Nextel phones – even though it caused a great amount of retooling, purchasing new radios, dealing with licenses and red tape for Avista – he understood the need, eventually.
His first reaction to BPL was ‘Heck No’ but then came to realize that he would be probably the best person to make sure that if BPL does work, it would work with all licensed services being unaffected. If it doesn’t, he doesn’t want to implement it.
Reasons for this are three fold – BPL would help with outages in finding the location of the outage. BPL can be used for AMR – Automated Meter Reading. BPL may at some time be forced on Avista’s infrastructure by a third party – Avista is a highly regulated and restricted industry. They may own the power lines and infrastructure, but they could be forced to allow a third party to implement BPL. Avista wants to find out what their liabilities are.
Brent has every intention of inviting Ed Hare to come to Spokane to help with the Pilot. When he mentioned that, the crowd smiled. I have a feeling that Brent, being an amateur himself – a Tech Plus Code – understands what Amateur Radio is about.
Brent also stated that the reason the NTIA stated (out of context) BPL will help reduce interference issues – that it was saying in order to implement BPL, a baseline would be needed and in order to get it quiet before the storm, dirty lines and bad insulators would need to be replaced – resolving some interference issues. Brent is really well read regarding BPL.
Dave H. is the Marketing Manager. He was there to answer questions if he could. Primarily that he wanted to thank everyone for being there. It showed him that there was quite a bit of interest in BPL from the amateur community and he is not taking us showing up lightly. He stated that Avista hasn’t picked a BPL Partner yet, they want the potential partner to show references and résumé’s that they have successfully implemented BPL and have had a good track record dealing with interference issues. There may be hundreds upon thousands of vendors clamoring for attention, but only one will be chosen. They are not sure of the technology that will be in use but that when they find out, we will be in the know.
Both Dave and Brent expressed that Bill Wadkins – WB7UCI will be their chief interference guy. When a couple of amateurs offered equipment, Brent actually asked them for their cards. One gentleman, name of which I forget right now stated that in his situation, that he scoped out Spokane as a place that he wanted to live, and set up his property with underground power lines and distant from any interference. He seeks out weak 2m signals. Brent wanted to get his card too.
Another, (again, sorry I didn’t take notes as to specific people) cited a long history of interference issues with Avista, and because of the meeting and the openness of Avista stated that they have him as a partner in interference issues.
Gordon – WA7LNC spoke up and stated that there is a lot more to amateur radio than antennas, knobs, lights and radios – there’s heart there too – a lot of amateur radio is handed down through generations. To feel the experience of long distance communication is something that cannot be related except first-hand. He got a lot of applause, as he was stating something that was so true no one else thought to mention it.
Both Brent and Dave asked to have me be the point of contact for the Amateurs, I accepted. I asked that people interested in getting information about the progress of the BPL Pilot contact me via email.
I asked questions during the meeting also. Some people unable to attend asked me to be their voice. I asked those questions and received mostly “We don’t know yet”.
All in all I believe that it was a very positive meeting. The BPL Pilot committee had not even communicated with the media at the time of the meeting with the area amateurs, nor shareholders, nor FERC. They not only brought us in at the beginning, but promised to include us in the pilot and make sure that BPL doesn’t interfere with our hobby.
I didn’t have the opportunity to read the October 22nd article in the Spokesman Review regarding the Avista Pilot, but did find it online. It is posted here for you.
Eastern Washington's largest electric utility is moving forward with plans to test the idea of providing broadband Internet service over power lines.
The technology, called BPL for short, was recently given a boost when the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules that allow utilities to compete for broadband customers.
At least three Washington utilities and one in Idaho have said they're pursuing pilot projects for BPL, including Avista Utilities, which serves about 325,000 electricity customers in Washington and Idaho.
The FCC decision lets Avista look for a partner to test BPL in part of its service area, said David Heyamoto, the utility's market solutions manager.
The system would be especially attractive in areas where people can't get high-speed broadband service through their phone lines or cable television hookups, he said.
"If we can bring broadband to other areas that now don't have it, that can become a boost for economic development," said Heyamoto.
Avista has issued a request for bids, asking service providers to develop a business plan around the BPL idea.
Avista would provide the utility grid and power lines, plus help install any extra equipment needed, said Heyamoto. The partner would manage the data backbone and run the actual business of finding and billing customers.
How much consumers would pay, said Heyamoto, is uncertain. "That's one thing that we need to find out from whoever comes up with the right business plan," he said. In some test projects nationwide, prices have been equal to or lower than the DSL service provided over telephone lines, he said.
So far, about a dozen companies have expressed interest. One is from the Northwest, the rest are based on the East Coast, said Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof.
Also indicating interest in the BPL idea are Seattle City Light and the Chelan County Public Utility District. Earlier this month, the Chelan PUD began a BPL test near Peshastin.
John Francisco, information technology manager for Inland Power and Light, based in Spokane, said that utility is studying BPL but isn't sure it's economically viable yet.
"Most of our customers are in rural locations (in Washington and Idaho)," he said. As BPL moves out from an urban center, a piece of equipment called a repeater needs to be added roughly every mile, he said, to ensure the signal strength remains high. Right now, those repeaters are expensive.
"My personal hope is the FCC ruling steers more development money into the BPL technology," Francisco said. Inland Power has about 27,000 customers in 13 Idaho and Washington counties.
The technology uses a special modem that plugs into electrical outlets or connects via a wireless device. A BPL customer's modem can take the digital data encoded into the AC current and deliver it to the user at speeds about as fast as cable modems do today, said Heyamoto.
The reason the data isn't lost or distorted by the AC current is that the voltage and the data are transmitted at different frequencies, he said.
The goal is to select a pilot project partner by the end of the year. The test itself would begin sometime in 2005, Imhof said.
Besides the one sided journalism pro-BPL, it doesn’t say that Avista has selected a single vendor. Avista is going to be picky about who they bring in.
It does bring to light that Inland Power and Light may be looking at a quiet pilot of BPL. We will probably need to find a ham who works with Inland.
Not much will be happening until Avista picks it’s BPL Partner. When they do, I will be ready to let everyone know. At least everyone who emails me with regards to Avista’s BPL Pilot.
Again, sorry for the delay in getting this to you, but I believe I have compiled all of the email addresses of everyone interested in hearing about the process.
Cautiously Optimistic,
Todd Cady, K7PKT
k7pkt-at-arrl.net