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Plug your PC into a wall electrical outlet, and that’s all your need to surf the web at high speeds. Tell the cable and DSL service providers where they can stuff their plugs, while you ride the wave of yet another next-generation technology at cheaper prices.

Well...not yet.

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for the concept of broadband over power line (BPL), which the Federal Communications Commission has been touting since 2003 as possible pricing competition for cable and DSL providers. It’s only a pilot program in a handful of cities, but the FCC commissioned studies on the technology and wanted an accelerated rollout of the program. Now you can scratch one of those cities off the list, while the FCC studies themselves are being attacked by amateur radio operators.

Some two million internet customers in Dallas will not be getting BPL after all, according to the Dallas Morning News. Current Communications, which was providing Web service to DirecTV customers in the North Texas city, will sell its lines and equipment to Oncor for $90 million. And Oncor tells the paper it has no desire to get into the BPL business.

This comes on the heels of an April 25 federal judge’s ruling that sided with the Amateur Radio Relay League, the advocacy group for home-based radio operators. The group sued the FCC; it claims BPL, which relies on radio waves, will interfere with its part of the spectrum. The ARRL doesn’t like the way the FCC is conducting itself (so to speak) with its power line study findings, and a judge agreed.

The lesson so far? Fight the power, not the power technology. No one should fear new technologies or competition, especially if they can offer convenience and affordability at the push of a plug into an outlet. But the spectre of cutting corners won’t help consumers or the small yet vocal minority of amateur radio enthusiasts who help out their neighbors during emergencies.

Read [Dallas Morning News] Read [Amateur Radio Relay League] Read [Utilities Telecom Council]

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