Broadband Over Power Lines: Coming Soon?

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "With technology improving and costs droppings, News.com offers up an interesting report on renewed interest in delivering broadband Internet access via power lines (a technology known as BPL). Earlier this month, the Federal Communications Commission proposed a new set of rules for utility companies that might want to offer BPL services as a way to 'encourage broadband for the entire United States' -- particularly hard-to-reach rural areas. As the article notes, EarthLink has already started testing BPL service in using power lines leased in Wake County, North Carolina. Could cable and DSL face a new competitor in the broadband market in the near future?"

Comments

BPL Bad

[dieman]

It tramples over many frequencies used by FEMA and Ham Operators. Ick!

Re:BPL Bad

[loucura!]

The good news is that Ham frequencies trample back, and as a Federally licensed operator, your traffic takes precedence to theirs, and since the stuff will be regulated under Part 15, they will be responsible for all the interference. It probably won't endear you to the neighbors though.

Re:BPL Bad

[tmasssey]

And that's exactly how the Amateur Radio community usually works. If you've got someone on 10 meters that's interfering with TV, it's *far* easier to build a filter for them than to say, "eat it, I've got the license." And I have a feeling that's how the *vast* majority of licensees would handle it.

But when you *do* have the license, and their horribly cheap TV is poorly (or better yet, improperly) built, with a front end that a walkie-talkie could overload, then what? I'm not buying you a new TV, and I *DO* have the FEDERAL LICENSE, and the RIGHT to the frequency I'm using!

Sombody has to have the upper hand. The government has decided that Amateur Radio has advantages such that they are willing to give us Primary use of a few narrowly defined frequencies, and Secondary use of a few more. These frequencies were not given to us. They were allocated for us, in exchange for our using them for the public good: emergency communication, etc. You may not see it as important, but the government does. Until the government, by law, changes this, that's how it works.

Competition?

[PurdueGraphicsMan]

Could cable and DSL face a new competitor in the broadband market in the near future?

Has there been any information released about the potential costs to the consumers for this service? I haven't heard anything other than Earthlink's $39.95/month (which isn't much cheaper than what I currently pay for cable). The only way cable and DSL will face any competition from BPL is if BPL is cheaper. Why pay for BPL if it's not cheaper or at least offers more bandwidth for the same price as cable or DSL?

Re:Competition?

[limpdawg]

One of the proposed uses for the technology is to reach rural areas where DSL and cable don't go. There are a lot of locations where people can only get one or the other type of broadband service and offering a third option will increase competition in places where there isn't any right now for broadband service.

Re:Competition?

[nbvb]

What about if you live somewhere where there's no cable modem service, and you're too far from the CO for DSL?

There's a LOT of areas like that in the US ... :)

(Thank goodness I'm not in one of them!)

Re:Competition?

[RGautier]

That's not true - DSL service is not available in many older suburban areas, much less rural areas. And cable service has virtually no competition in some of these areas, keeping pricing high. By offering BPL in these areas, cable will finally have competition.

Sound great....

[DjMd]

This sounds great I can't see any problems with this... Oh wait yes I do

oh sure, great...

[enrico_suave]

The only problem with this solution is that when the power goes out you are going to lose your internet access.

=)

E.

Re:oh sure, great...

[zerocool^]

trying to power a desktop computer for 8 hours when your power's out requires something a bit more expensive than a small UPS.


1.) Purchase small ups. Or, get one used from ebay.

2.) Borrow someone's voltmeter.

3.) Open UPS, figure out how much voltage the batteries have (ballpark - if it's 26, it probably means 24, I've never seen a UPS that had a voltage not a multiple of 12, 26 probably means charging voltage).

4.) Unplug batteries. Hook wires up to battery plugs, snake wires outside of UPS.

5.) Purchase 12 volt 135 amp-hour deep-cycle marine batteries (1 per 12 volts of ups battery, obviously). Alternatively, if you don't want to keep distilled water hanging around, go online or to a "battery store" (i.e. batteries plus) and buy sealed lead acid batteries (which probably will cost more for less amp-hours).

6.) Wire up external batteries in series to bring total voltage to standard for UPS.

Congratulations, your 12 amp-hour UPS has just been upgraded to 135 amp-hours. For more power, wire in additional serieses in paralell (not reccomended unless you have a good understanding of charging currents and regulation of power across battery banks).

~Will

hmmm

[Em Emalb]

Could cable and DSL face a new competitor in the broadband market in the near future?"

I doubt it.
However, if it decreases the market share, then I hope that will mean good things for all of us, lower rates. And that would be a good thing.

Let's hope not...

[CountBrass]

Powerlines were not designed to carry RF. It'll bleed all over the spectrum and disrupt radio hams, cell phones, cordless phones, tv remotes and yes all those lovely WiFi and Bluetooth devices.

And surprise surprise the FCC, the regulator, seems to have conveniently ignored these "inconveniences".

See the ARRL web site for more objections and to give your support to their objects.

Edward - Ham: M3EWK.

Debug

[wpiman]

Self installation kit.... Take the black wire and white wire and stick this meter across the terminals. I wonder how many people will inadventently fry?

First in the market

[mekkab]

I assume BPL will take off in areas where cable modem/dsl aren't yet available. This will get the ball rolling. In these areas when Cable and DSL finally get there they will have some difficulty knocking out the incumbent.

THEN- with some success/captial under its belt BPL will eventually start running specials and deals trying to under cut Cable/DSL in areas where those are already available.

Uncapping?

[ravenspear]

I can think of at least one advantage of BPL from the providers' POV. It would definitely discourage uncapping.

First thing I'll do when I get Powerline BB..

[Fr05t]

.. is play Duke Nukem Forever on my Phantom gaming console. I've heard this same thing so many times I have lost hope - especially since anyone that I talked to at my local power provider said they either never heard of it or don't care.

Broadband Over Power Lines: Coming Soon?

[hendridm]

Is it that time of the year already? Wow, I guess it as been awhile since our last BPL-to-the-masses announcement. Maybe this year it will dethrone DNF for the #1 vaporware spot.

My power company has trouble delivering power...

[malchus842]

and now the suggestion is for them to carry internet service? I see a number of issues here, not the least of which are:

• Who pays to install the infrastructure? If it's the rate-payers, this will be a non-starter.
• Who pays for the hardware at the customer end?
• Why does the FCC seem to ignore the frequency problems?

So, the proposal is to have mega-monopolies managing more infrastructure, delivering service that's not in their core area, and requiring huge infrastructre changes?

Hmm. Why does this look bad? Especialy when the local power company has a horrible reputation for maintaining their existing power infrastructure. I think I'll pass on this one.

Transformers are still a problem....

[CodeGorilla]

How does the BPL handle connectivity around the transformers? Either they are using an RF bypass, or they are using a fiber bypass. Then comes the issue of maintenance. The RF units should be easier and cheaper to maintain, but they have durability issues compared to fiber. On the other hand, fiber bypasses are more expensive to install and maintain, but once in place, they should be more durable than the RF counterparts.

Moreover, I *STILL* haven't seen specs for BPL which make it fiscally viable except for rural communities where cable/DSL/wireless have not yet penetrated.

I can't wait to get BB over PL

[Kufat]

So I can download that Duke Nukem Forever ISO. They should be coming out at about the same time, I think.

Already here

[PrionPryon]

The city of Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario already has a functioning system as discussed in this article.

Re:Already here

[TheSync]

This is interesting: "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."

BPL not shielded

[d4rkmoon]

Yeah, it does trample HAMs and other FEMA frequencies. It doesn't help that they don't shield the wires from RF, so basically if there's any transmission across it, it blasts anyone for miles. Pretty stupid if you ask me. Now if they bothered to shield the wiring (likely event), then it might be worthwhile to consider. Unfortunately, that would never happen. Not really a practical solution.

Already running in Hong Kong

[xstein]

Hutchison Global Communications, a Hong Kong based telecommunications company and ISP, has been offering broadband internet access to Hong Kong residents over their power lines for over a year now.

At downstream bandwidth upwards of 1.5mbits (and infrastructure to cater to upgrades of up to 10mbits) and at a cost of less than US$18/month, the service has been quite successful thus far, and as a subscriber, I cannot recall a single outage due to problems with the power lines (and not trouble at their network centres or regularly scheduled maintenance operations).

Though...

[RedShoeRider]

...line spikes are a pretty common problem in most of the country (or at least out in the woods where I am), and must run a UPS or line supressor on everything that I value that's plugged into a wall. Assuming that I had a broadband over powerline modem, it would need the wall outlet for both power and for signal. That's a given.

So say I put one of my UPS's on the line (such as a TrippLite w/ISOBAR, which are really great for line noise supression)...does that mean my signal gets filtered out? So I have to leave the line unsupressed, and everytime we have a lightning strike in the area (at least 3-4 times a year), I'm calling the electric company to cmoe replace another fried modem? Do I have to purchase a special ($$$$) supressor from the electric company that has a bandgap filter just for that frequency?

Seems as if there are too many variables once you are inside the house, nevermind the problems with Ham bands, Bluetooth, etc.

I say stop waiting for it

[Skrekkur]

I dont understand what the fuzz is about, around broadband over powerlines. It has been in use here in iceland for quite the while now, and my experience of it, is that its laggy (around 500 ms) and the speed is rather unstable, since its based on how many are using it at the moment. I admit its rather cool to connect your modem into a powersocket instead of a phonesocket but its not much more than that, here at least adsl 1,5 mbit is cheaper, and faster, the only thing power has over that is it uploads as fast as it downloads.

Re:Ham Operators....

[tlhIngan]

Except, well, people need *practice*. And equipment needs to be *purchased* and *maintained*. Would you buy the latest gaming PC (or Mac) (the investment is similar), only to find that you are allowed to use it, say, the first weekend of a leap year?

Oh, BTW, low-frequency signals easily traverse the globe. A localized blackout like August 2003 may still result in communications failure because of interference from the other end of the country (where there *is* power).

And let's not forget everyone *ELSE* in the HF bands - we've got military, aviation (HF is the only way to communicate long distances), marine, broadcast (SW especially), CB, RC, cordless phones, etc. who use it for its special properties. Sure we can all switch to satellite, but are you willing to shell out the increased costs for satellite equipment in everything you do (taxes, shipping costs, tickets, imported goods...)? (As if we need *another* reason for companies to jack prices up!)

OTOH, it does make spying on internet traffic easier - sniff passwords 3000 miles away! Or someone will find a way to do BPL wardriving (imagine that... hitching internet service from someone in the next state! Though, this would lead to more spam...) Damn I'm conflicted.

(Then there is the fact that HAM radio is a regulated service, and BPL is unregulated.)

BPL Banned in Austria

[Zappa]

Having the same problems for HAM operators, they tried to stop the BPL Test in Austria.
The ministry responsible for this stated that the HAM services in emergency cases are more important and stopped the testlicense.
Heres the Press Info (sorry, its a PDF) from OEVSV, the Austrian HAM assosiation.

Fibre

[Draoi]

Here in Ireland, our national electricity org, in an uncharacteristic moment of foresight, bundled fibre optic cables along with its high-power lines. No RF bleedoff issues, no crossover problems, etc, etc. The network was already there & it was just a matter of phasing in the fibre when upgrading lines. They did this very, very quietly indeed!

Link here for those interested.

Now all we need is for our national telco to roll out ADSL in a meaningful kinda way ... :-/

Available in my hometown

[dtio]

In some residential areas of Madrid (Spain) you can currently get a symetric (600 Kbps upload and download) internet access via power lines for 39 euros/month. Here they call this technology Power Line Communications (PLC) but I think it's the same as BPL.

I don't know how it works though, I use regular DSL access.

You can get more info here: http://www.neo.es (in spanish).

Re:Christ, WE KNOW

[srhuston]

If you need a hobby, get a CB or something, but the rest of us want our internet.

We *HAVE* a hobby, and it's amateur radio. Try to (legally) use a CB to talk to someone half way across the world, it's not happening.

While I'm new to the debate about BPL and its effects on radio frequencies, I don't think the FCC would allow for something like this if it would completely kill other, legitimate uses of radio (such as amateur frequencies and FEMA, as the grandparent post mentioned). And either way, according to ARRL, this is a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, meaning "We're thinking about deciding on this issue, so let us know what your feelings are", not necessarily "This is what's going to happen."

Re:Christ, WE KNOW

[LouisJBouchard]

Try to use a telephone (even a cell phone) after a disaster such as a hurricane or tornado. Even the terrorist of 9/11 has shown that phones cannot be relied upon.

Ham radio on the other hand only needs an antenna (A simple piece of wire can do that) and some type of power source such as a running car or generator.

Yes, the telephone works 98% of the time but when it fails for the 2%, it is nice to have something to fall back on.

How about internet over water pipes

[ikeee]

since we are looking into every single line that runs into houses to bring internet to homes, are water lines going to be next? How about pulsating water like morse code to transmit data, or better salinate it so that it can carry electricity?

Re:Stupid

[emtboy9]

Not necessarily. phone line != DSL availability. DSL is only useful/available if you are within something like 15000 feet of the CO. beyond that, the signal is weak and unstable, and even so the bandwidth that far out is not worth the effort.

Where I live, there is no such thing as DSL, nor Cable broadband. Hell, I cant even get an ISDN line because the equipment where I am is not set up to support it. (at least thats what the phone company has told me after repeated attempts to get one installed)

Now, on the one hand BPL could theoretically bring that to my house, or as one way goes, at least close enough to my house that a WAP can get the bandwidth the rest of the way to my LAN. BUT on the other hand, in the US at least, it is still in the bare testing stages, AND is NOT a licensed device.

As an amateur radio operator, I have been following this closely. The FCC rules do NOT make any part 15 changes, and in fact order BPL providers to provide a quickly searchable index of all equipment, AND provide ways to shut segments down remotely, AND to immediately cut the BPL signal off should someone on a licensed frequency complain.

So, lets say this rolls out, and I as an FCC licensed radio operator attempt to contact someone on a freq below 30MHz, but instead get nothing but RFI from the currently operating BPL system in my area. In that case, according to the FCC proposed rules, the BPL provider would have to ceace any and all BPL transmissions upon my notifying them of interference, until such time as they can fix the issue and eliminate the RFI. And that doesnt have to come from an Amateur Radio op either.

The local police use VHF here, but they also share HF freqs for paging and local comms with the Fire/EMS depts. not to mention the HF freqs licensed to FEMA and other emergency agencies.

Honestly, where I am, the only viable broadband would be satellite, but the latency on a bidirectional satellite connection would prevent me from playing games... ;) and besides, its too expensive.

Ya need to keep in mind that the majority of people MAY live in or around major cities, but BPL is not meant for that use... it was meant as a cheap means of getting broadband out to RURAL areas where the popluation is not as concentrated. The tests are in major cities because of convenience, and in part because the power companies are hoping that by running it on underground cables, they can make a case that there is no real RFI issue.

But in any case, the FCC has made a proposal for rulemaking, it is still open to discussion/review/input from the public (or will be soon) and there is still a lot of discussion before anything becomes concrete.

Re:Christ, WE KNOW

[loucura!]

But the interference will prevent people from entering the field altogether. It will prevent people from being able to use their Federally Licensed Privelege to the Spectrum, and so emergency services (amongst other things) will suffer.

Re:Don't care

[srhuston]

Okay, so we're flaming today. Got the right underwear ready...

Maybe I should be clearer: none of us care about your hobby.

Maybe I should be clearer: I don't care about your internet access.

But as for a very few people using a fairly wide band for hobby use, well, I couldn't think of a poorer use of spectrum.

Hmm... let's see:

160M: 200kHz
80M: 500kHz
40M: 300kHz
30M: 50kHz
20M: 350kHz
15M: 450kHz
12M: 100kHz
10M: 1.7MHz

"Wide band"? Where? Not until you get up to 2M (4MHz) and 70cm (30MHz), and I don't think those are even going to be affected by BPL. Your cell or cordless phone uses much more bandwidth than any of the above frequencies.

*plonk*

BPL Bad Indeed

[Pan T. Hose]

It tramples over many frequencies used by FEMA and Ham Operators. Ick!

Oh yes, that's very important indeed. But what I'd say is at least equally important issue with Broadband Over Power Lines is that little problem that, well, it's a fucking scam for god's sake!

I have written about it countless times. Please let me quote my last post about this very issue:

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:

Luke Stewart boldly sold politicians, businesspeople, and financiers on his trillion-dollar idea: Use the electrical grid to carry data at speeds faster than we've ever seen. Never mind how.

Inventor William "Luke" Stewart is a genuine national treasure, the kind of person who comes along once, maybe twice, in a century. How do I know? Well, I heard it from business executives, congressmembers, academics, military leaders, journalists. These people met Luke Stewart, sized him up, and concluded that his scientific intellect was virtually unparalleled. His ideas, they said, could alter not only the future of the Internet but the fate of humanity itself.

But sometimes you have to go straight to the source. The real reason I know that Luke Stewart is a national treasure - and, I suspect, the reason that all those other people did, too - is that he told me so himself.

[...] The idea of sending information via the electrical grid, rather than over telephone copper or fiber-optic cable, has been around for decades. The field, known as power line communications, or PLC, is pockmarked with wasted investments and technical failures. Only within the past few months have several companies begun to deploy limited PLC ventures.

[...] Stewart, however, had a much grander vision, based on what he considered to be a dramatic discovery: Data could hitch a ride on the magnetic field created by electric currents running through power line wires. By piggybacking on this magnetic field, instead of on the electricity itself, he could obtain almost limitless speeds of transmission.

[...] Media Fusion promised to deliver, within two years, bandwidth at speeds thousands of times faster than what's possible with fiber. Stewart was company chair, while the board of directors included government heavyweights such as former Speaker of the House Robert Livingston; Terry McAullife, a leading Democratic fund-raiser and close friend of then-President Clinton; and Admiral James Carey, former chair of the Federal Maritime Commission. The firm's Web site declared that the ASCM technology would "impact every facet of our life," and the computing power of the network would be "exponentially more powerful than any supercomputer to date." [emphasis added]

[...] So Luke Stewart - self-proclaimed national treasure - carries on. Chances are, we haven't heard the last of him, [how true...] because Stewart sold his vision best to the one person who will never pull the plug: himself.

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.

Read the actual FCC notice (link)

[bonnyman]

There are many confused and mis-informed comments on this subject here. If someone's really interested, they can take about 15 minutes to read the actual text of the FCC's notice of proposed rule making (NPRM).

I've got more background on my blog, which cover BPL, FTTH and wireless broadband news. (You can also search the archives using the built-in search function).

Finally, the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology had a draft article on the technology and legal issues that was posted on the FCC's web site a month or two ago.

Damn thought that was Australia....

[quinkin]

Well good on the Austrians (and Japanese, and etc.). Funnily enough I agree that emergency communication is more important than more places to receive high speed spam. Have we all seen the graphical representation of BPL's effects?

I am yet to see any sort of comprehensive study on the environmental effects of modulating power lines (a damn difficult task without BPL in the mix), there has been a lot of FUD but very little research. I do not know what rating power lines they intend to transmit these signals over, but I have spent many an interesting hour reading about the effects that the existing 50-60Hz AC current has on the ionised air around high tension power lines. Regardless of the more esoteric "corona flow" and "ionic squirt" of high voltage lines, it is a bad idea to expand our power lines into higher frequencies.
The non-ionizing portion of the spectrum can be subdivided into:

• The optical radiation portion, where electron excitation can occur (visible light, infrared light)
• The portion where the wavelength is smaller than the body, and heating via induced currents can occur (MW and higher-frequency RF).
• The portion where the wavelength is much larger than the body, and heating via induced currents seldom occurs (lower-frequency RF, power frequencies, static fields).

Wavelength bigger than body = good.
Wavelength smaller than body = bad.

Heh ok, tinhat off now. :)

Q.

A few cautions on your "plan"

[Ellis D. Tripp]

1:)The charging circuitry inside the UPS is designed only to charge the internal battery bank. By adding a huge string of internal batteries, you very well may be overloading the charger. 2:)The inverter circuitry inside the UPS is no doubt designed for limited duty cycle. Running it on a long-term basis (longer than the internal battery would have powered it) will require upgraded heatsinks on the switching transistors, and improved cooling fans. If the inverter transformer is also underrated for continuous use, you will need to forced-air cool it, as well.