FCC broadband rules

The Federal Communications Commission, last Friday, issued its Final Rule on broadband power line systems. The rule adopts new requirements and measurement guidelines for a new type of carrier current system that provides access to broadband services using electric utility companies' power lines."

Also on the 7th., the FCC made public more than 650 pages of technical presentations, etc., it said it used in making its decision on its BPL Report and Order in ET Docket 04-37. The American Radio Relay League had filed a Freedom of Information request on that material

The Supreme Court, back on Dec. 3, 2004, meanwhile, consolidated two 9th. Circuit Federal Court of Appeals cases, granting writs of certiorari to what the Washington Post and others have described as "having major ramifications for computer users across the country."

The Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit organization "working to ensure that the digital media systems serve the public interest," in the stay, has set up a website monitoring the process of those cases.

At the end of last year, too, the 8th. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision that a Minnesota utility company couldn't regulate internet calls in the same manner as regular telephone service.