One of the nation's largest broadband over powerline (BPL) deployments is in Manassas Virginia, where a company named Comtek provides the service over the municipally owned electric power grid. The company serves 900 home and business subscribers (12,500 homes have the option) on frequencies between 4 MHz and 30 MHz. Residential customers get at least 200-500kbps downstream for $28.95 a month.

The ARRL has long taken issue with the deployment because - according to the group - it's causing harmful interference to amateur & emergency radio, and does not comply with FCC Part 15 (pdf) rules. The ARRL states that field tests conducted by Manassas hams and the Department of the Navy found the system "was an interference generator at distances of hundreds of feet from the modems on overhead power lines."

Complaints to the FCC have resulted in "no action or even interest" on the part of Commission, the group claims. Meetings between the ARRL, Manassas Power, and Comtek "have not produced any solution to the interference problem but have, instead, created the illusion that the problem is being addressed," says an ARRL attorney.

That "illusion" apparently continues today, with Comtek issuing a rather aggressive press release entitled: "Finetuning of BPL Technology in Manassas Complete, Legitimate Ham Radio Operator Concerns Now Addressed." The word "Legitimate" an obvious dig that the company does not consider many ham complaints to be such.

"We are not aware of any valid basis for the concerns of those who would deprive BPL broadband to Manassas families and small businesses," says Comtek Vice President Walt Adams. "The opposition from these almost entirely non-Manassas individuals and their national organization appears to be grounded in a fundamental opposition to BPL rather than any hard facts."

Adams calls the ham concerns "clearly a campaign to turn back the clock on broadband in the United States."