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Earthlink Invests In Broadband Over Power Lines

Posted by timothy on from the keep-your-jacks-straight-please dept.

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."

13 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Interference problems... by detritus` · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
    1. Re:Interference problems... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well here we go again, the same old argument : ham is old, Innurnet is shiny and better, so screw the hams. I'll sum up the arguments why hams should have their bands untouched by BPL (or any other interference for that matter):

      - Hams are useful to the community : they do aviation security radio watches, can relay messages from people at sea, and are often the last communication medium when all else fail. You don't believe me and that's normal, because it's never happened to you (or me, I'm too young). But I bet resistant fighters during WW2 really did appreciate, for example.

      - There are a lot of great technical advances that were made by hams, playing and experimenting on their allocated bands. To deny them the bands just so you can d/l pr0n in the middle of Alabama means to deprive the entire scientific and technical community of these discoveries.

      - Hams have been using their slices of the spectrum for decades, and had to work and pay for the privilege. In short, if nothing else, I'll say we were here first, and so we do have some rights in the matter.

      There are many other reasons why ham bands should be left alone, but this is /. and I don't want to bore you all.

      73 de F8EJF

    2. Re:Interference problems... by brain1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      At least one thing will come of this. When the equipment begins blacking out HF spectrum, the furor should put this half-baked technology out to pasture once and for all. Imagine overseas flights using 10MHz HF SSB communications not able to get clearance to enter US airspace because their comms are blacked out by this garbage?

      If this gets to the point that it's deployed in my area, I plan to become *extremely* active on the HF Amateur Radio bands with *full* legal power. If it means fighting fire with fire, then by all means I'm prepared. They operate under the part 15 "non interference" rules. I operate under full FCC license to transmit. IOTW, I win. Hmm... when is the next DX contest???

      To quote Part 15: "must not interfere" means that they legally cannot interfere with my operation, and "must accept any interference" means that if I kill an entire neighborhood's internet feed, that's just the breaks. They cant stop my transmissions as long as I am complying with the rules and regs.

      But, being a realist, I suppose that once "big business" gets involved, then all they have to do is throw money, and they have plenty, at lobbyists and get congress to pressure the FCC to toss us hams off the air. Sadly, amateur radio does not have the status it once had.

      Comments?

      de N5DH

  2. Error in summary by Mieckowski · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article says that after the first 3 months the price will be $39.95, which is about $40/month rather than $50/month.

  3. Didn't we just hear about how dangerous this is? by paroneayea · · Score: 5, Funny

    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/
  4. Bandwidth Capping by Mork29 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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....

  5. Mpbs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mega promotional bull shit?

  6. Won't the internet just go *down* more? by Rockenreno · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!
    1. Re:Won't the internet just go *down* more? by gricholson75 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Oh, whoa is me.

      Keanu is that you?
  7. Not as cool as AOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They've been advertising some new broadband over automobile solution that looked pretty fast.

  8. Completely naive question... by dnaboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

  9. I don't buy this article at all. by maeltor · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  10. Mpbs? by mr_jim83 · · Score: 5, Funny

    exceeding 10 Mpbs.

    For when you need 10 Million PBS stations.