Here, courtesy of Dileep Srihari at WilmerHale, is a piece from yesterday's Telecommunications Reports Daily on the FCC's Brief in ARRL v. FCC. 73, Chris W3KD

From today's TR Daily:

**************************************************** FCC DEFENDS BPL DECISION TO COURT The deference that the courts give a regulatory agency is "particularly broad in a case that involves [its] scientific and technical expertise," as in the case of determinations and rules related to interference from unlicensed broadband-over-power-line (BPL) Internet access operations, the FCC has told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In a brief filed with the court in "American Radio Relay League, Inc., v. FCC" (case 06-1343), which involves a challenge by amateur radio operators to the FCC’s 2004 access BPL report and order and its August 2006 memorandum opinion and order in Engineering and Technology docket 04-37 (TRDaily, May 18), the Commission argued that its rules for access BPL operations are reasonable and consistent with the agency’s own precedent. "Almost from the beginning of its regulatory existence, the FCC has construed [s]ection 301 [of the 1934 Communications Act] not to require the licensing of devices that do not transmit energy in a manner and to a degree that has any real potential to affect the [n]ation’s communications network adversely," the agency said. ARRL, however, argues that the FCC may allow unlicensed operations "only in situations where there is no risk of any interference to licensed operations," the Commission added. "As noted, there is a vast array of commonly-used devices that have some potential to cause interference and that operate on an unlicensed basis pursuant [to p]art 15 because the FCC has concluded that there is little risk of harmful interference to licensed services." - Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com   ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.