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Earthlink Invests In Broadband Over Power Lines
prostoalex writes "Earthlink dedicated $500,000 to delivering broadband connections over power lines by launching a test drive of the technology with Progress Energy in North Carolina. 500 homes involved in the projects can sign up for promotional pricing of $20/month, which after 3 months will be changed to $50/month. No word on bandwidth provided, but Ambient Corp., which provides technology for the project and accpeted EarthLink investment, claims data rates exceeding 10 Mpbs."
Once again the interference point has to be brought up, the company uses 5 - 70 Mhz, which dumps inteference out on the following bands:
Several Amateur Radio bands (1.8, 3.5, 7.0, 10.0, 14.0, 18.068, 21.0, 24.9, 28.0, 50.0 Mhz)
shortwave radio (7-14 Mhz)
older cordless devices, such as phones (49 Mhz)
CB Radio (29Mhz)
Military communications (several)
And there's probably more, but i'm too lazy to dig them up...
drunk chemists
electrical internet is too dangerous for kids
The article says that after the first 3 months the price will be $39.95, which is about $40/month rather than $50/month.
The price after the first three months is $39.95, not $50.
500 homes involved in the projects can sign up for promotional pricing of $20/month, which after 3 months will be changed to $50/month.
Yo man, here in the projects we can't even afford $10 for groceries, and yo want us to shell out $50 a month on broadband? I don think this is gunna fly, man!
Like how the combination of power lines and ethernet was supposed to grow cancerous tumors out of your eye sockets that develop into tentacles that molest japanese schoolgirls? I'm pretty sure there was just a story about that on slashdot just a bit ago.
http://mediagoblin.org/
claims data rates exceeding 10 Mpbs
You know that you won't actually get 10Mbps for this, because the ISP's end bill and equipment needs would be to much. That's why all of the DSL/Cable companies have started sending acceptable usage warnings to their customers because they used up all of their unlimited bandwidth (God I love irony) (God I love being an agnostic who says God alot). Any who, as far as I know, this tech was meant more for giving broadband to them crazy country foke who ain't got them thar new digitized lines.... Right? Anyway, what is the range of these lines? How far away can you live from a "hub" or how exactly does that work....
just get my packets-o-porn here fast!
Mega promotional bull shit?
We are Earthlink of clams we will filter your packets, tunneling is futile.
Pun intended. High winds or storms can knock out power lines, causing people to lose power, but if the ethernet connection is hooked up to said poles, we'll lose internet as well. Oh, whoa is me. Then again, I suppose that unless you keep a generator to run your computers in case of a power outage, it wouldn't really matter if the internet is not working while you're power is out. It's the principle that matters though!
Forecast for tomorrow: A few sprinklings of genius with a chance of DOOM!
Maybe I'm paranoid, or maybe I just read an article about certain magnetic fields damaging brain cell DNA. I don't remember though, because I just shaved with an electric razor. Damnit. Seriously, can we just get over this and invest in some Fiber to the Curb (FFTC) or Fiber to the Home (FTTH)?
They've been advertising some new broadband over automobile solution that looked pretty fast.
My mistake, need to brush up on my rounding skills.
Like most regular slashdotters, I've seen this come up a few times, and every time it's mentioned that Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) interferes with all kinds of radios and devices, including ham radios and military communications. My question is this: does anybody think that the military will actually let this happen? Especially given our current state of paranoia, I just can't see the FCC overruling the armed forces and saying, "Nah! Change all of your communication gear so we can speed up Billy Bob Hick's internet!"
Karma: Contrapositive
Not knowing much about how broadband really works, can someone explain to me why this wouldn't have the same limitations as DSL? So, with DSL there's a restriction on how far someone can be from a main telco box. Intuitively it would seem that broadband over power lines would hve the same issues, thus making it no more appealing to deliver broadband to the boonies than DSL, which the telcos have balked at due to cost. Thanks
I add "...to Provider's nearest host".
In my town great most providers advertise like this. They just install ethernet lines between people's houses. And then say, 500 customers, each on 10 mbit line are all plugged into one 1mbit line connecting with the rest of the world.
Yeah, transfers like 1KB/s are quite common.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
And don't get me started about those commercials!! "An Earthlink address makes a good impression." My ass it does.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
MaxPower (2263)
"I got it from a hair dryer."
if you say so. I like their service, and I have no bandwidth caps...I leave them alone and they leave me alone ;-)
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I'm pretty sure there was just a story about that on slashdot just a bit ago.
/. for those of us who don't tune in on a regular basis.
Don't worry. It will get reposted in another day or two.
Reruns: The nice thing about
Most of modern military communication devices dynamically change frequencies and use various techniques to prevent jamming - just in case the enemy does so. They are pretty effective at that too.
But civilian service class radios, like the police, emergency rescue etc all are vulnerable...
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I was playing Diablo 2 and the power went out during a storm. Luckily my UPS kept the comp/monitor/cable modem up and running for a few minutes until I could transfer my items and log out/shut down. =)
I just moved from the very area they are test-marketing this in. Maybe it's not too late to move back...
/me calls his old boss
as it is, i get internet, tv, and phone service all over my cable line. it'd be even nicer to get internet over power lines, VoIP and TVoIP (if such a thing existed...) :-P
So when am I going to be able to power my comptuer and get an internet connection with the same cable?
""An Earthlink address makes a good impression." "
only compared to a Moonie e-mail address.
I know this is anal, but considering the lack of clear information about IP-over-powerlines, I will pose the following problem.
I am a sound freak. I replace components in store-bought devices, I spend hours adjusting proper placement of speakers and matching cable lengths to millimeter precision. Now if some big ignorant comms corporation starts pumping multi-mhz modulation on my power lines, that will most likely affect my hi-fi components due to high frequency aliasing componded by cheap cabling and long distances. Wouldn't that be VERY BAD for these multi-thousand-dollar amplifiers that rely on crystal-clean power to do their thing ? Conventional power conditioners are designed for filtering minor surges and dips in power, as well as light induced noise (interference). Now if the company injects 'noise' on purpose, with higher amplitude and reflections accumulated over hundreds of miles.. methinks it will seriously hinder the transient performance of my gear and that of many other, more wealthy and lawsuit-happy people.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I'm tired of people competing for frequency bands. Where are all the super-antennae that allow you to focus in a signal that's only 0.00001 Hz different than another, different signal next to it?
Come on, technology! Figure it out! It's the 20-somethingth century for crying out loud. We should be able to have high-speed Internet connections and Morse code wonks. Why do we have to choose?
sev
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
Argh... The fastest Internet connection that can be used in my small town (or at least the part I live in) is 28.8 dialup! Why couldn't they have picked where I live. =[ Hopefully this form of broadband will become wide spread soon.
I miss my College connection.
Belive in Technology and AMAZE yourself. -- RIP ZDTV/TechTV
An Earthlink address makes a better impression than an AOL or MSN address.
Don't cast your pearls before swine.
The service limits you to transferring data related to Sesamee Street, Nova, and Lim Lehrer.
There is nothing wrong with hiring better workers. Earthlink is to be commended for doing this, to keep prices down.
Hire more hardworking Indians. It only makes Pat Buchanan and the other racists all the more mad.
I work for IDACOMM. We are CURRENTLY doing testing with both Ambient (to the plug) and Amperion (wifi) and let me just say....Ambient doesn't work. The technology is just way to infant. We were lied to by their sales, president, and engineering departments about how far along their "techology trials" in New York were. We currently have about 50 people deployed on Amperion, and it works a lot better. We are working towards "to the plug" techology, but we know that it is going to be for a lot harder than these articles claim.
About how it has already caused 2 machines to become molten bricks of plastic. I know because I had to talk to one of the 2 customers.
Replacement list:
1. Wooden desk (burned)
2. Computer/Monitor (charred)
3. Everything that was in their office. (toasted)
The project will be beta for a long time. They just did all this because they wanted to get people talking and maybe buying stocks (which I have too much of). Why am I posting this...because when people from india show up around my cube all of a sudden, I know I am on the endangered outsource to do list.
exceeding 10 Mpbs.
For when you need 10 Million PBS stations.
It's a shame that this is being done with Earthlink, the company that cranks DSL and cable "inlimited users" news feed connection down to next to nothing if you dare use more that 1 gigabyte in a month.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
having a scientology address really goes over well if you want to impress John Travolta.
My power company only delivers 3 things: high bills (like I will want to give them extra money), power and, my favorite, power spikes (I've gone through two coffee pots, 3 baby monitors and a dozen AC adapters for various things). Yes, the equipment is built by someone else but it will be installed and managed by people that are delivering the first and third things above. This does not have warm and fuzzy written all over it.
We'll for some, a 3rd choice will be welcomed to drive rates down. For other's at least a single choice will be welcomed. More power to them.
Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good., Hmmm, how about Excel and Word?
like someone else pointed out, the interference from the radiated signal will play havoc with radios, lets not forget it also goes both ways.. so being a Ham Radio operator I can only imagine that when I get on and key up with a kilowatt of SSB large sections of my neighborhood will suffer some serious packet loss :-), plus I have to wonder what my arc welder will do hehe
Mhh how many informations will fly through the city on radio frequences? Isnt too easy to catch them? I mean the amount of credit card numbers flying isnt a problem as long as they are encrypted but there are still plain-text user/pass combinations, and especially e-mails are mostly sent plain-text (how many of you actually uses SSL for mails?) Maybe i didnt get exactly how it works but it looks to me pretty unsafe, i remember when i had one those little "walkie talkie", a very old one and i could catch many communications this way.
Why does my o'scope show that all my AC power is now 10 million cycles second rather than 60?! ;-)
-psy
Screw the traffic LED on the router, my lamps-a-blink'n.
Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good., Hmmm, how about Excel and Word?
There are several factors that the BPL industry isn't mentioning:
- Even low-power, in-band transmissions can completely shut down BPL for a mile radius or more. Wonder what happens when I fire up my (FCC licensed) KW on 20 meters for a weekend-long contest?
- BPL is for overhead transmission lines. Burried lines don't have near the capacity but ARE better on interference.
- The bandwidth mentioned for BPL is STDM shared in the same way as cable modem service. YMWV
- Last, BPL operates as an unlicensed part 15 service. All part 15 users are liable to accept ANY and ALL interference from licensed services and must cease use of a part 15 device that causes interference to a licensed service. This passes ALL interference problems off to the end-user.
Turn it off NOW or go to jail...
WB1GOT
Many (international) BPL interference studies can be found on the ARRL Web site: http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/
if you were a real troll you'd know that alcohol and lust fuels us.
like any good slashdot troll, the mere thought of a clenching anus of a drunken twink expecting to become penetrated by a thick throbbing cock should get you going.
- Electricity
- Phone (VOIP)
- Cable TV
- Internet.
How is broadband over powerlines going to be affected by redundant power systems? My understanding is that unless you live in the sticks, there is supposed to be more than one path for electricity to reach your area...I think the original post got it wrong. The Progress/Earthlink test is using Amperion not Ambient.n ews/articl e.asp?id=8362
http://www.progress-energy.com/aboutus/
When they say All the do mean All. Hence the need for 10M stations.
Help fight continental drift.
Just spend more moeny because being an 'audophile' isn't about the music, it is about who can spend the most money.
What the hell difference does having one AUDIO cable off by 1 mm have? I mean, wtf?
it's impossible to do this
to put it bluntly with any modulation technique you get a range of frequencys from the modulated output
you need to recieve theese frequencys or you simply cannot decode the signal and the higher the transmiaaion the larger theese need to be
moveing to higher frequencys elminates a lot of the issues as there is simplely more bandwidth there but the trouble is high frequency operation gets more and more expensive
in circitury terms
also only a few very small bands can actually go long distances
Matt...
Save the Bottom Line
Ham radio peep's who know about RF interference type stuff are appalled at the thought of this happening. Google it.
-- Exposing the hype of Gentoo zealots. Modded into the ground to suppress opinion.
So, if this supposedly causes that much interference, wouldn't it be rather simple to sniff the traffic going across the wire with nothing more than an antenna, an amplifier, and whatever device they are sticking in people's homes? It's like wardriving, but with the ability to sniff a LOT more traffic.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
Better get a good surge protector :)
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
"They aren't better, just cheaper"
If they do just as good a job for less money, they are better.
"The American taxpayer gets to subsidize the profits resulting from Earthlink's use of [better workers]"
No, they do not.
"So while Earthlink makes more money, you pay more for other things."
No, if I use Earthlink, I end up paying less than I would otherwise, and I pay more for nothing else.
"Destroying the middle class through transfer of jobs to [better workers] will weaken America in the long term"
Only if Americans are hopelessly lazy and can't do anything well.
"despite what Alan Greenspan, banker and profiteer, has to say about it"
It is really not his business. It is really not your business, or my business. It is only the business of Earthlink and its employees, even if these employees are foreign.
The American taxpayer gets to subsidize the profits resulting from Earthlink's use of [better foreign workers].
In fact, Earthlink pays out much more in taxes than it receives in "corporate welfare". The American taxpayer is not subsidizing Earthlink in any way, whether or not Earthlink chooses to hire better workers who happen to be foreigners.
and higher costs of service due to less people able to afford products and services
No, this makes goods and services cheaper (or makes the price go up less), so more people can afford them. You are claiming that things are the opposite of how they really are.
""Everything in life is decided by a series of blowjobs." Mr. Show"
Talk about being stuck in the 1990s. The decision-making process of the Clinton administration.
RWE, one of the big utility companies in Germany, introduced powerline internet in 2001. Read the announcement on Wired.
From the article:
"RWE hopes to have 20,000 subscribers by July and grow that to 100,000 by the end of 2002. Beyond that, the growth potential is enormous."
Right. The last numbers were 15,000 subscribers early 2004 (compared to more than 2 million people using DSL, which by now is offered with 3Mbps).
Powerline internet had technical problems from the start on and came too late.
Laawwdy mercy, betty mae, I cain't see tur fixin' up muh blacks TEETHS so's hows cain't I afferd some 'em innurnet? I cain't do hit!
The overwhelming problem with BPL is that not only does is radiate RF hash, but I could take a transmitter that puts out as little as 4 watts and completely disrupt a BPL signal. Other countries have tried BPL but have banned it (japan for one) because of the interference problems it produces on the HF bands.
But instead of accepting the facts, the power company is going to try it anyway because the people in charge are even more clueless than the most brain dead computer user. How long do you think the power company is going to put up with "My Internet service keeps going away!" complaints from their user base before they do the right thing and run fiber to the households.
Sure it may be fast and cheap, but it's suseptable to nearby radio transmitters and will be the most unreliable Internet connection out there. With the right radio equipment, packets could be sniffed, you could DoS the entire neighborhood with a CB radio or other low band or amateur HF transceiver. Not to mention all the RF hash that will be delivered to your house on a otherwise clean power line.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
They're already working on Broadband Over Candle.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
If you are an amateur radio operatorand an earthlink customer, please consider switching providers to protest Earthlink's action here. Make sure they know why you are switching to a new provider.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
Earthlink is owned by Scientology.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
As long as Earthlink does not get involved with Luke Stewart and anybody else from Media Fusion of Dallas TX, this might work.
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
Dear Earthlink,
YHBT. YHL. HAND.
I just cannot believe this thing is still around. The only reason people started trying to use power lines for broadband in the first place was not because of the actual properties of power grid as we know it (most of the comments here talk about the obvious inefficiencies, so I won't talk about it), but a completely new theory invented by Luke Stewart who promised more than billion gigabits per second (sic) with his Media Fusion scam. I suppose Earthlink investors don't know how to use Google, so please let me quote a Wired article from 2001, by Evan Ratliff:
Read the whole article and Google around for more informations. It is a very interesting scam and quite a successful one at that. Maybe that's not homeopathy but it is impressive nonetheless.
Investors, repeat after me: Google is your friend.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Sorry, I forgot the link. It's The Electric Kool-Aid Bandwidth Test by Evan Ratliff, Wired, November 2001. Everyone who is interested in this story should read the whole article. I quoted only few short fragments.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
If BPL is going to cause too many problems then how are people who cant get dsl or cable supposed to get broadband? I'm extremely tired of 26.4kbps dialup! And no satellite is not an option it's way too expensive (and supposedly no good for mp gaming). There wouldn't be a need to try such controversial internet service techniques if someone would make something to provide rural broadband.
"Hams are useful to the community "
1) Yes, both of them
2) Hams are creepy. Like clowns or male nurses
3) The code thing to get licensed for higher power is simply set up as a gate.
4) Its an weird hobby mostly put in place by the FCC because of inertia. Ham ceased to be relevant in 1975.
"Comments?"
Congratulations for complete fear-mongering.
I mean, the idea that somehow this will make planes crash is so illogical, my 9 year old son could poke holes in the argument.
Here's two real obvious one:
1) Its likely that a reasonable solution will be found to harmonic interference
2) If #1 proves to be untrue, then its impossible to deploy if planes are falling out of the sky.
The fact that you put forth such a ridculous argument tells me you're on week moral and scientific grounds.
Go back to the basement and tap out some morse code.
" Old copper can't always handle newer techs like DSL"
Yeah, the old stuff was missing a few electrons, and shit, you know how that goes.
No, this is an excuse. The possibility is there to do so much with this "old copper", but the phone companies would rather increase this quarter's profits by 1% rather than invest in the future.
ANd its this stupidity that will put them out of business.
Think of it... on one side everybody under 30 is dumping landlines and going to cellular (even though it sucks), they've ceded the high speed internet market to the cable companies, the internet via cable is going to remove any last bits of revenue from long-distance.
I don't feel sorry either. They knew this was coming for 20 years and they did their best to stop high speed internet. ISDN - They wanted $300/month for unlimited 128K. Ouch. DSL - they chose a technology that tethered them to 3miles from the central office. They refuse to upgrade this technology.
They *don't* care. Fuck them.
" replace components in store-bought devices, "
Why don't you go up to your roof, and scream at the top of your lungs "ME AM DUMB".
I mean, you understand just changing the sound doesn't make it better? You're on a quest for the holy grail. But just like the holy grail, this special sound you're looking for doesn't exist.
You're a sucker with too much money.
Isn't earthlink related to scientology? I never do business with scientologist. They're worse than baptists.
"Wonder what happens when I fire up my (FCC licensed) KW on 20 meters for a weekend-long contest?"
Uh, any chance of getting laid disappears?
" I end up paying less than I would otherwise, "
No.
Earthlink's prices to customers have no relationship to whether their costs are cheaper; cheaper costs just increase margins.
selling price is related to the price of competing products, not the cost of "production".
It a mistake that many people, including famous economists, sometimes make.
I just find it interesting that when I tried to search Earthlink for referenceto to BPL, I got this message " No pages on the EarthLink Site were found containing "BPL". "
Wouldn't you think that if they were so big on investing in this 'new' high-speed technology they would have a press release, news bit or development status page?
and only one way to deliver ham radio. Piping through the Internet doesn't count since in a disaster the Internet is likely to be down.
I'm like the other fellow ham above in that if this comes to my neighborhood, I'll be doing a LOT of HF operation during prime time and I'll probably get an amplifier instead of my normal QRP (low power) modes.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Have at it! Let's find out now if there really are interference issues due to BPL. We've been bitching about BPL hosing up the airwaves for a year or so, and now it is time to put up or shut up. The FCC counts on us to be a self policing organization, and that means tracking down sources of interference. This is an excellent opportunity to do just that. In addition, if there are some issues with BPL now is the time to find them. That's what testing is all about.
--de kc2kth, 73
Their new ideas revolve around ways to transmit data through underground power cables with multiple neutral wires. Big underground power cables are surrounded by multiple neutral wires, which has some shielding effect. The idea is to differentially drive those multiple neutral wires with RF. This is claimed to emit less external RF than driving the high voltage side of the line.
In cities with underground cable vaults, it's easier to wire fibre or coax. Either provides more bandwidth. Ambient only claims 10Mb/s, and that's per cable segment, not per end user.
This looks more like a specialized technology being overhyped than a major breakthrough.
I'm pretty sure I saw that documentary. But if I recall both the tentacle monster and schoolgirl enjoyed it. Therefore BPL is a good thing.
The way this is implemented bothers me a little bit. I could be wrong but it looks like they are just creating hot spots and using some 802.11 variant to get into the home.
I live in Raleigh and thought about getting more information until I saw this. Since they are doing it this way they can really limit how you can use the service. Most other broadband ISP's have an ethernet solution which allows you to use any of these routers that are on the market (linksys, netgear, linux using iptables, etc) but with this method you can really be screwed. First of all the can hide the WEP so that only machines that they approve of can even connect to the hot spot in the first place. So they could very easily support only Windows clients (or maybe Mac too). But Linux users would be screwed. And I have never heard of a wifi to wifi router or wifi to ethernet router so sharing inside you home without them knowing about it could be problematic. I just see all kinds of problems that this might cause.
I am all for choice but this really smells fishy to me.
--
Billwashere
I'd take his word for it. I used to think that Cox was the cat's pajamas, despite what my friends told me, until I actually had to *communicate* with the people in their customer service department.
Suffice it to say that there were a lot of unsubstantiated charges that appeared on my bill and every time I called to try to get them removed they issued a $10 "collections fee". The icing is that, after I told them to cancel my service and sent them the exact amount they told me, two weeks later they sent me another $10 invoice.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
selling price is related to the price of competing products, not the cost of "production".
Costs of production are more important: if the costs of production are too high, then a price set by looking at competing products can result in bankruptcy.
It a mistake that many people, including famous economists, sometimes make
It is an even worse mistake to ignore the reality of production costs.
i just read the parent post and thought it was a joke (or a troll looking at the "YHBT. YHL. HAND." but it seems to be directed to earthlink, who were victims of luke stewart's troll) but then i followed the link, read the article and now i am amazed that no one is talking about it... well, it's score:1 so no one has probably read it, or everyone thought it was a joke. please mod parent up. this is very important stuff to keep in mind and talk about every time someone tries to implement network over power lines. i have to admit that i had no idea about this scam before.
I'd much rather have the power company work at keeping the lights on than making dubious investments in a third-rate broadband venture.
Hmm... when is the next DX contest??? ARRL DX-CW is on this weekend. Crank up the Alpha and stacked mono-banders!
If it is only a miniscule percentage then it would have little impact on this big ISP, so there would be no reason to go to the extra effort to add extra complexity do this to people. No, the very action of doing it shows they know they are affecting a significant percentage of users. And what is acomplished by offering unlimited service and then choking it off this way? At least the news servers use only bandwidth that is local to Earthlink; that is, once the article is on the Earthlink server, any number of Earthlink users can download it without adding to the bandwidth to the rest of the Internet (the bandwidth that Earthlink should be more concerned about).
Why should the news group user have his bandwidth limited to dial up speeds, when the p2p user can use full bandwidth that extends outside of just Earthlink all month, or the FTP user, or someone who uses their unlimited always-on connection to listen to Internet radio 24/7, or any other application that uses large amounts of bandwidth, but doesn't use it as efficently as news groups do?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Sorry to hear of your troubles with Earthlink, I too have heard nightmare stories while trying to deal with them regarding their services. I live in an apartment complex and SBC didn't whine or bicker a single time while connecting my 6000/600 dsl service. If I am not mistaken, they too offer DSL service in Houston.
Copy of my original post follows:
Here was a much more paranoid explanation by Mr. Dvorak of PC Magazine about 10 months ago that I recall. His observation was that the technology has failed and the only reason it's still being pushed is for the big brother (think: very highly targeted advertising + possible Patriot Act/Govt usage) benefits of having TCP/IP to all the outlets in a household. I read this at a friends house in an old edition of PC Magazine months ago and it still sticks in my head every time I hear something about Powerline Networking.
Found the original article (thanks Google) in another comment in a different /. discussion from last month. Reposting it here for easy reference: (apologies if someone else already covered this)
February 18, 2003
Nothing makes me more suspicious than old, recycled news pretending to be new news and released under weird circumstances. In this case, I'm referring to the recent "news" about power-line networking. This, in fact, is a technology I've been hearing about for 20 years. Its strange and sudden promotion by the government is ominous.
Old technology. It began on January 16 with an Associated Press article reporting that federal officials (the FCC) think that power-line networking "may become the next pathway into homes for high-speed Internet access." On what planet?
This piece ran in The Washington Post and on most major news outlets. Five days later, TechTV reported the same story without questioning the source or the rationale for the idea's reemergence.
This non-news is obviously being orchestrated by some of the companies involved in the technology. Who can blame them? But why is the FCC suddenly on the bandwagon?
Phony rationale. The new angle is that power lines can provide an alternative way to connect to the Internet in a national emergency. Has anyone noticed the simple fact that during most disasters, the first things to go off-line are power lines, not phone lines? Something else is going on.
I've always been baffled by the continued development of power-line networking when all network engineers know that power-line noise is not conducive to data flow. Set up a home network over power lines and see how well it operates when Betsy cranks up her 1,500-watt hair dryer or Dad turns on the blender. Filtering all this noise is difficult, which is the main reason that power-line networking has gone nowhere. There are reports of stable 1-Mbps and even 10-Mbps systems, but all the network engineers I talk to are suspicious of any such claims. We have wireless technology, mesh concepts, and Ethernet-to-the-home initiatives. Why does development continue with power-line networking?
The reality. The idea of a personal Internet connection over power lines is preposterous, since other technologies are clearly better and more stable. The real reason to promote power-line networking is so the appliances of the future can be monitored and controlled from remote locations.
Imagine that you own a Maytag washer with an LCD screen. It's got an IP address and is plugged into the electrical system where it communicates with a Maytag server on the Web. One day, the machine's LCD tells you that you can download a new spin cycle by hitting the red button on the washer. Meanwhile, the LCD also tells you that the Safeway down the street (of course, the washer knows where you live) is having a sale
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.