[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1629 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1629

  To request a study by the Federal Communications Commission on the 
   interference caused by broadband Internet transmission over power 
                                 lines.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 14, 2007

   Mr. Pryor introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To request a study by the Federal Communications Commission on the 
   interference caused by broadband Internet transmission over power 
                                 lines.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency Amateur Radio Interference 
Protection Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) More than 650,000 radio amateurs in the United States 
        are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
            (2) Among the basic purposes of the Amateur Radio and 
        Amateur Satellite Services are to provide voluntary, 
        noncommercial radio service, particularly emergency 
        communications.
            (3) Emergency communications services by volunteer amateur 
        radio operators have consistently and reliably been provided 
        before, during, and after floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest 
        fires, earthquakes, blizzards, train accidents, chemical 
        spills, terrorist attacks, and other disasters.
            (4) There is a compelling Federal Government interest to 
        promote the deployment of Broadband over Power Line (BPL) 
        systems that deliver energy efficient, secure, and reliable 
        services to underserved areas of the United States.
            (5) It is the policy of the United States to seek mutually 
        beneficial standards established by the Federal Communications 
        Commission that promote the deployment of competitive BPL 
        systems that do not cause harmful interference to public safety 
        services and other licensed radio services.

SEC. 3. COMPREHENSIVE BPL SERVICE STUDY LEADING TO IMPROVED RULES TO 
              PREVENT INTERFERENCE.

    (a) Authority.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall conduct, and 
submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
Representatives, a report on a study of the interference potential of 
systems for the transmission of broadband Internet services over power 
lines (in this Act referred to as ``BPL service'').
    (b) Required Subjects of Study.--The study required by this section 
shall examine the following:
            (1) The variation of field strength of BPL service signals 
        with distance from overhead power lines, and a technical 
        justification for the use of any particular distance 
        extrapolation factor.
            (2) The depth of adaptive, or ``notch'', filtering for 
        attenuating normally permitted BPL service radiated emission 
        levels that would be necessary and sufficient to protect the 
        reliability of mobile radio communications.
            (3) A technical justification for the permitted, radiated 
        emission levels of BPL signals relative to ambient levels of 
        man-made noise from other sources.
            (4) Options for new or improved rules related to the 
        transmission of BPL service that, if implemented, may prevent 
        harmful interference to public safety and other radio 
        communications systems.
                                 <all>