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First Canadian High Speed Internet over Power Grid
oO0(MjB)0Oo writes "Sault Ste. Marie, a northern Ontario town, is going to be the first installation of BPL (Broadband Power Line technology) in Canada. As reported in the Toronto Star, wireless access points will be set up along medium-voltage power lines, providing roaming capability throughout the city to all users."
But I have to wonder whether this will increase the noise on the powerlines. The frequency used on the lines is not given, but don't we have enough 2.4 GHz noise in the air? Do we need some bleeding into the powerlines as well?
Of course, that could be my "the Commons is being raped"-foil hat again.
The previous sig has been removed due to
Also, will this cause any other sort of interference? My TV reception (over antenna) is already crap because of Ontario Hydro -- I live within 0.5km of the high-voltage pylons and my TV reception is terrible on VHF because of it.. (during the huge power outage last summer, I was able to very clearly receive stations all through New York state)
Honestly, is it too much to read the summary instead of just the misleading and/or sensational headlines?
Of course, I must be new here.
"Wyant is quick to point out PUC won't be using power lines to deliver Internet access directly into the home. Instead, the company is installing wireless access points along its medium-voltage lines in densely populated residential areas.
These wireless "boxes" convert data so they can be sent through the grid and on to PUC's fibre-optic backbone, which connects to the Internet. Home computers equipped with 802.11b or "Wi-Fi" wireless access cards and within 150 metres of these access points will be able to use the service."
This quote doesn't sound like they're sending network data over a power line - it sounds like they are using their existing power line locations to add external WAPs that tap into a fiber network. If they were using the existing power lines, I would expect them to be able to sell/rent boxes that convert the signal from your electrical outlet to an ethernet jack. That's why it sounds misleading - if they're not really sending data over their powerlines, and instead are sending it via another method. But maybe I'm just misreading the article (which I finally got to).
Wrong. If you had read the article, you would know that the power company has put 802.11b access points on their power line towers. The access points are connected to the internet over the power grid, but the customers use 802.11b to get data from their computer to the power lines. There is still the possibility of people stealing bandwidth, but if the network is set up properly, stealing would be a lot more complicated than just running a wire.
Karma: Meh (Mostly from meh.)
Beleive it or not, US law is not applicable outside of the US.
Little Brother, watching the watchers
"Our service can reach into areas that others don't, because the power network is the most pervasive on the planet. It's where the phones aren't and the cable isn't."
This is wrong. BPL is not a long haul technology. It needs to go through repeaters every 200m, depending on the vendor. The economics for deploying this where cable service doesn't exist isn't there, and is infintessimal where phone service doesn't exist. In fact, it's likely they'll have to use telco facilities or fiber to backhaul the data from BPL segments.
Everyone seems to be under the impression that you plug this in to the grid and voila, fifty miles away you have Internet on every wall plug. This is just not so.
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
Unfortunately, this isn't going to be a solution for "Last Mile" broadband in rural areas. As the article notes this is only being deployed in high population density areas in the city using wireless access points to get from the medium voltage lines to the homes. Of course out in rural areas you would end up with one wireless access point serving one household which is unlikely to be economical...