ARRL takes the FCC to court over BPL rule

The ARRL, the national society of radio amateurs in the USA, has filed a Petition for Review in the United States District of Colombia Circuit, seeking a review of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) recently adopted rule that exempts BPL operators from having to anything to correct interference to mobile operations other than to notch emissions to a level 20dB (below 30 MHz) or 10 dB (above 30 MHz) below the absolute limits specified elsewhere in the rules.

The FCC is the regulator of non-government spectrum in the US.

Essentially, the ARRL (supported by two other parties intervening) is saying that the FCC has ignored certain facts that it should have taken into account in formulating its rules.

If the ARRL succeeds the Court will order the FCC to reconsider its decision taking into account the facts that it failed to take into account.

The Court will not substitute its judgement for the judgement of the expert agency, nor will the decision deal with more than this rule affecting mobile operations.

Obviously, this sort of legal challenge is very expensive, and no one would doubt that the ARRL Board has acted very carefully indeed, but are convinced that a successful outcome will influence the FCC to act in the future having better regard to its legal obligations.

Unfortunately, because of the very narrow issues of fact involved and the very specialised nature of administrative law, the US case cannot be seen as model for Australia.

For more, see the ARRL site via this Link

Click Here To Return To Previous Page