Amateur radio operators are wary about a new technology that can carry high-speed Internet service via power lines. They say it causes significant interference with their communications and could potentially interrupt public safety operations.

The technology's supporters acknowledge that broadband over power lines (BPL) sometimes creates interference. But they say technology exists to remedy the problem.

BPL bundles radio frequency with electrical currents either through aboveground wires or underground pipes. Because electric currents and radio waves operate at different frequencies, they don't interfere with one another. Customers need to connect only a modem to their outlets to receive the signal.

Manassas, Va., recently installed BPL technology throughout the city, and several hundred residents have signed up for the broadband service. The city's public works department did the installation. Communication Technologies, based in Chantilly, Va., will own and operate the network and provide Internet service.

George Tarnovsky, an amateur radio operator who lives near Manassas, doesn't discount BPL's benefits, but he said it interferes with ham radio signals.

Tarnovsky also said ham radio transmissions could create a dangerous situation if they interfere with BPL transmissions.

"What if you interrupt a BPL transmission, and they're doing voice over IP, and it happens to be an emergency call?" he asked. "This could possibly be a life and death situation. Who's going to be liable for this should something tragic happen?"

Tarnovsky and several ham radio colleagues filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, which asks the two sides to work it out.

Walter Adams, a Communication Technologies vice president, said radio operators have pointed out several instances in which the technology exceeded FCC specifications and caused interference. To remedy those problems, dynamic notching devices were put in place.

"You just block certain portions of the frequency…that is typically in an area where the ham radio people operate," Adams said.