ARRL's Chief Executive Officer Blasts NTIA on BPL Figures

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Dave's not happy with these published figures"

"...I have followed the ups and downs of the BPL industry very closely for more than five years. There are very few commercial deployments of BPL, and examination of the FCC data state by state shows all of the significant ones are included. The idea that there could be another 195,000 customers out there, happily connected to the Internet by BPL -- yet unreported by their service providers -- is utterly ludicrous.

Even more absurd is the NTIA's citation of the "forecast" of about 400,000 customers by the end of 2007, drawn from a year-old Web promotion for a $3000 "industry report."

It is indefensible that the NTIA chose to include in its report unsubstantiated industry estimates and forecasts that inflate the FCC-documented figure for BPL subscribership by 3900 percent to 7900 percent. If the agency wishes to retain a shred of credibility, it will issue a corrected report with the UPLC map, the TIA estimate and the unsupported forecasts deleted."

To read his entire commentary (even nonmembers can read it  ), go here:
http://www.remote.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/02/01/101/?nc=1

[W3DBB]

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[k4kyv]

"...The idea that there could be another 195,000 customers out there, happily connected to the Internet by BPL -- yet unreported by their service providers -- is utterly ludicrous.

The same could be said for the 152,000 A.R.R.L. member statistic K1ZZ cites in his "Growth" editorial. Politicians and bureaucrats manipulate statistics to suit the agenda.

Dave Sumner gets a taste of his own medicine and his cry of foul play appears on the A.R.R.L. website. If he isn't too hard of hearing he should be able to hear the sound of the world's tiniest violin.

But that doesn't make the BPL advocates' spin any less deceptive.  Besides, 152,000 is still only 25% of the currently licensed amateur radio community.  Hardly a quorum regarding political and regulatory decisions.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

A 2.5% to 3% growth in membership in one year's time is a great sign. More hams are seeing the value of ARRL membership and support. Of course, we won't see their overall final financial numbers for 2007 until the Annual Report comes out.