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Broadband via Power Cables trials in Scotland

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lookit-all-them-wires-in-there dept.

Wacko writes "Scottish Hydro-Electric have started a trial of Broadband internet access via power lines. Just plug the modem into any power point in your house, with no need for additional lines into the house, and reasonably priced too. Details are a bit scketchy right now but interesting to see how the trial goes."

13 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. didn't someone try this? by tiedyejeremy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ddn't someone try this in Germany or England and discard the idea because all the transmissions could be received with some sort of antenna near the power lines?

    --
    Anything you say will be held against you. ... "tits"
    1. Re:didn't someone try this? by Mwongozi · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Yes, they tried this in England, and discovered that every single street light was acting as a giant transmitter, and worse, it was a little bit too close to the frequencies that ambulances used to talk to each other.

      The project was abandoned.

    2. Re:didn't someone try this? by Zocalo · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I don't know about Germany, but in the UK that would be the company where I currently work in one instance.

      It was under the brandname "Powerline", and yes, it failed and was abandoned. This was due to noise on the line more than anything else - a huge chunk of the electricity switching network in the UK, the National Grid, is *old* and electrically noisy. When power is switched it causes a spike on the circuit which then rather noisily settles down, trashing the data that was transmitted. Not to mention all the inductive properties of wires for collecting interference. What we found was that the technology was sound, and it did indeed work (there are still some of the schools we used for the trial using it), just a lot slower than was hoped. Too slow for viable commercial use it was felt.

      Basically, if you are a power company looking to get into data, and have a modern, low-noise, distribution network, then this may well be viable. Of course, for rural Scotland this will be a lot more viable than urban Manchester with fibre running everywhere, because you could charge more for it and still be cheaper than the competing technologies. Or alternatively have better response times than them - Quake via satellite broadband? ROTFLMAO. ;)

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  2. Limitations by Beatbyte · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It would be interesting to see the speed and distance limitations. Considering a fully equipped DSLAM is costing a half a mil or so, serving this might be a cheaper route.

    Anyone have an equipment manufacturer name or link?

    My ISP might be interested...

    --
    Get paid to code OSS
  3. What a deal! by ddstreet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Man, I wish I lived there! Their speed comparisions implies the download speed is 2Mbps (about 4x a 512Kbps line)! And the pricing is great - either 15 or 25 pounds/month! That's about 25 or 40 USD/month! Sweet.

    1. Re:What a deal! by Jhan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Heh... My ADSL connection is a reliable 2.5Mbps, for about $35 a month (Sweden). Care to immigrate? OTOH, you might want to consider Japan instead. They've recently rolled out 14(!)Mbps ADSL for about $20(!) a month.

      Mmmmm.... Bandwidth.... Drool...

      --

      I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.

  4. Usage for LAN only access in the US? by mrnick · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if this could be adapted for LAN usage here in the US. If so I would def want to look into it. Does anyone know what the max throughput is from one point in a house to another point in the same house?

    Nick Powers

    --

    Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
  5. Re:Aren't there problems? by tiedyejeremy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    here

    --
    Anything you say will be held against you. ... "tits"
  6. dangerous by Ubi_NL · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If been in a trial in NL, and it worked sorta OK
    until I plugged a dodgy TV into a near socket.
    Apparently the TV blew back a few volts down the line which in its turn took down the modem....
    Not a pleasant experience.

    --

    If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
  7. Doubtful by Captain_Frisk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Power lines are noisy, and not just a little bit. Then you've got the whole shielding issue (mentioned in other posts). X10 made a home communication thing that used powerlines as the means of transmission (had to build a reciever for one in college) and the amount of crap that comes through on those lines is disgusting.

    Look at the reviews of home networking / print sharing equipment over powerlines... the speed is pretty poor. Heres a review over at firingsquad While those speeds may be fine for internet sharing in one household, imagine trying to put together an entire town?

    Maybe they've got something else going on though. Best of luck to them.

  8. Packet routing by papasui · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I work in the broadband industry for one of the larger cable companies and the question I have with this technology is how they break up the users so that they don't overload a particular box. In the cable industry we have CMTS boxes that handle a group of people from a particular node. From my understanding the way powerlines are layed out is completely different. Just a thought.

  9. The wrong direction by RobertNotBob · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I think that they are going the wrong direction in looking for new bleeding-edge technology. Nobody is better placed to use the current tried-and-true technology than the power companies.

    Here in Virginia, USA, the power company "Dominion Power" is closely tied to "Dominion Communications". The issue is simple. If you want to run copper (or fiber) between two locations, you need continuous right-of-way . You need legal access to a swath of land between both locations that has no point where you do not have the ability to dig a trench. There are only 3 groups that have this. Governments (along the roads), Railroads (like the way Qwest did it) and power companies. (unless I dimm-wittedly forgot somebody)

    It seems silly to me for an organization that HAS continuous righ-of-ways to bother with troubled technologies when they can actually lay their own fiber, and charge silly amounts of money to other companies to lease their left over strands.

    --
    ___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
  10. Re:Hope for hillbillies by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "People on dial ups in rural America are watching and praying."

    Seriously.

    I live in rural Canada and I *am* watching and praying.

    This is because people like me are on ultra long phone loops and can get 31.2 on a good day. Some can only get 21.6. There is not ADSL. Cable TV is not wired. A few wireless options are insanely expensive. Satellite only has modem by upstream and the lag is bad. There are NO plans for expansion of traditional broadband to my area. Telcos won't pull in a T1 and even if they did, the tree density is so high that 802.11b neighborhood sharing so to pay for it is out of the question and houses are 1+ km apart so cat5 is out too.

    This is worth geting excited about.