Iain Nicol Assistant Director DTI Standards and Technical Regulations Directorate Responsible for EMC Directive

UK Administration position on PLC - Introduction Commitment to Broadband Britain Necessary mix of Technologies Trade off between telecom service and disturbance unavoidable and common to many broadband technologies Aim to reduce uncertainty Broadband deployment goal in the context of the wider public interest

UK Administration position on PLC – Structure of presentation PLC in the UK UK history with setting enforcement limits for emissions from DSL and PLC Complaints and the likelihood of interference Cumulative effects EMCD and the role of standards A way ahead/conclusions

UK Administration position on PLC – PLC in the UK so far Technical trials in Scotland Emission levels similar to those recorded in other MSs trials Crieff technical trials successful and commercial trials now started

UK Administration position on PLC – Technical Trials in Scotland

UK Administration position on PLC – PLC in the UK so far Technical trials in Scotland Emission levels similar to those recorded in other MSs trials Crieff technical trials successful and commercial trials now started

UK Administration position on PLC - History with setting enforcement limits for emissions from DSL and PLC Limits for ADSL in MPT1570 No current similar provision for VDSL and PLC Administration forced to apply compromise limits and operators able to rollout ADSL

UK Administration position on PLC - History with setting enforcement limits for emissions from DSL and PLC Limits were based on a lower estimate of disturbances than suggested by the broadcasters 1.4 million ADSL lines and one confirmed complaint

UK Administration position on PLC – History with setting enforcement limits for emissions from DSL and PLC Introduction of enforcement limits for VDSL and PLT held to see if the CLC/ETSI JWG can find a solution Consensus on technical grounds seems unlikely

UK Administration position on PLC – Complaints and Interference Clear that emission levels have the potential to disturb radio services (mainly in HF bands) However there may not be a complaint SW listeners v on-line radio Interference from existing sources

UK Administration position on PLC – Complaints and Interference Other methods of dealing with possible interference Probability of interference cannot be estimated by reference to unintended emissions levels at a particular point

UK Administration position on PLC – Cumulative Effects Theoretical models suffer from lack of practical evidence with which to validate them Several million ASDL lines and some sizable PLC installations seem to work with no obvious detrimental cumulative effect

UK Administration position on PLC – EMCD and the role of standards How to apply EMCD to systems? Regulatory certainty from Harmonised Standards would be ideal Impossible to measure real systems Not what is injected into the system that matters but what is radiated as a result Any standard must be realistic

UK Administration position on PLC – A Way Ahead 1. More trials 2. No one technical standard 3. Undertakings on handling problems 4. Complaints should be real life 5. No absolute assurances 6. Public interest 7. Better methods of assessing PLC/HF interference

UK Administration position on PLC – Conclusion Compromise on the risk of interference v. ability to deploy Affordable Broadband needed in Europe A Standards solutions seems unlikely in near future Local limits still possible but undesirable Would prefer a Europe-wide solution

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