A longer wait in store for power line broadband. ARRL ties up FCC in the courts.

Something’s wrong when the FCC can run a near sham auction and award most of the wireless spectrum to two incumbent monopolies only to have their BPL regulations overturned by a handful of hobbyists. Then again in the auction, billions were collected, and the judge that’s holding BPL up is probably an ARRL member. Reality is there is nothing fair, impartial, or openly competitive about the way things are being run by our government.

When setting rules for BPL operators nearly two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission said it was trying to encourage deployment of a “third pipe” to compete with cable and DSL services, while establishing limits aimed at protecting public safety, maritime, radio-astronomy, aeronautical navigation, and amateur radio operators from harmful interference. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), which represents amateur and ham radio operators, however, promptly sued the agency, contending that the FCC’s approach was insufficient to ward off interference with its radios and inconsistent with its previous rules.

On Friday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia on Friday issued a ruling (PDF) that took issue with the way the FCC arrived at its rules. (Cnet)