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Google Invests in Power-Line Broadband
fsterman writes "ZDNet reports that Current Communications Group has received investment money from Google, Hearst, and Goldman Sachs for their internet over broadband ventures. The Wall Street Journal reports that the three companies invested roughly $100 million in the start-up. Current Communications and Cinergy Broadband said they will create one joint venture to bundle broadband and voice services for Cinergy's 1.5 million customers. Current also has plans to use the new investment money to expand its broadband over power line deployments in the U.S. and overseas."
This is quite disturbing.. Well it's obvious google doesn't care if yout radio doesn't work or your Over the air tv signals are no longer viewable. Anyone tried to watch tv with someone sitting just 5 feet from a nextel i7xx series phone? you can hear the tick tick tick of the timing signal. This can't be much better
I can't see it ever happening. It would knock out emergency bands, and pretty much fsck up commercial radio. It was an idea that should have been abandoned years ago.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Don't go there...if you look at the history of Slashdot they're anti-Ham radio for the most part. Their reasoning is why stop progress for something that only 600,000 people in the country do. You know, the needs of the many outway the needs of the few.
Ham is very useful, but try telling that here. Expect to be flooded with people with these sentiments, and I hope I'm wrong about that.
There is so many other ways to get broadband to even the most remote people that over the powerlines doesn't even need to be. Got a phone line? You should be able to get broadband. If not, do you REALLY think that BB over powerlines will be in your area instead?
Oh well, it will be a major nail in the coffin that was the great and wonderful world of Ham radio. 100 years down the drain.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
I'd love to see some links to this. This flies in the face of damn near everything I've heard about using power lines in this way, as it essentially turns them into large antennas. A few months ago, other links were provided that showed that this technology bleeds RF like crazy, so your claim is completely at variance to everything else I've read, and my understanding of the physics of using power lines in this way.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Second, coupled with voice over IP, this puts Google (potentially) in the ISP business and the telecom business.
Lastly, this would catapult Google from the tenuous position of search engine king (just like Yahoo used to be) and into the dominant ISP, teleco, search engine, etc company.
In other words, AOL, Microsoft and Ma Bell all rolled into one!
Agile Artisans
Power line technology has various problems, such as the fact that power lines were not designed to carry high frequency transmissions and tend to turn into giant antenna systems when they are used in such a manner, disrupting accessibility to radio services such as shortwave radio and amatuer radio. It also turns out to be a rather expensive technology to implement as well as being problematic, since transformers tend to absorb and block RF signals on the power lines, requiring expensive solutions to bypass them. It is to the point where it will be so expensive to implement that it would be better to just implement a fiber optic network, which would provide better bandwidth anyway.
I think a much better and more effective, as well as higher quality solution for both bandwidth broadband avialability and the choice, and for maximum capacity, is to construct a shared fiber optic networks which could be used to carry telephone, cable tv, and internet. These systems should be owned and operated by local governments (who could contract out maintanence and construction to independant contractors if they wish) who would charge an access fee to fund the operatation the networks, and which would be open to all information service providers to provide their information services over them, such as multiple cable tv, phone and internent providers, giving people perhaps dozens more choices, assuring competition and choice for the consumer. This also would seperate the operation of the physical infrastructure from the information services, so one entity isnt controlling both the information services and infrastructure, which allows that entity to have a monopoly over the information services provided over the physical infrastructure. Instead access to the physical infrastructure would be avialable to all information services, like phone, internet and cable, and all of the information services and consumers would pool their resources to build one communications system which tends to be more efficient than every information service having to have its own information service, and it would make it eisier for smaller companies to enter the market and provide additional choices for the consumer since they do not have to fund the construction of another communications system for their exclusive use.
From this article:
While BPL has the potential to serve 13 million U.S. households in the next three to five years, interference problems and a reluctance from many electric companies to offer new services may slow its development, said Barry Goodstadt, vice president at market research firm Harris Interactive Inc.
13 million homes are a "potential" in 3 to 5 years. Comcast has 21.5 million "potential" subscribers right now. I have a feeling that telcos have several million more "potential" subscribers... Yet I don't see telcos rushing out to give competive DSL and I certainly don't see Comcast rushing out to give HSD service to every end of their market.
You think that this technology is going to be any different? I don't.
It's similar to DSL. Only it radiates far more garbage into the 2 to 30 MHz spectrum, because it's not being sent over twisted pair. It's also much more susceptible to incoming interference from HF radio transmissions.
I should say that I'm an amateur radio licensee, and the amateur community is against this technology because of the interference it causes.
As to BPL having been tested in Europe, I think you'll find that the tests in the UK ended with BPL being discontinued. The tests in the US have been interesting, with amateurs claiming interference and BPL providers denying it. The FCC seems (slightly) biased towards the industry, ruling that tests cause no interference in spite of amateur evidence to the contrary.
Ultimately, I suspect BPL will be an expensive failure, with fiber and digital cable being used to provide broadband to most homes, and wireless links for those far from population centers. BBL signal losses on long runs and interference problems related to the noisy powerline environment will probably make it unattractive compared to dedicated high-bandwidth digital media.
Any linkage to back that claim up? Or is this perhaps another case where the power company did their homework first, and deployed BPL in an area with nobody around to complain?
I do have a few links that say otherwise though: here, here, and this one which actually looks like a company trying to do it right.
Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
I've been using Current Communications' service in Cincinnati since last November. The lowest tier of service (which I have) is 1Kbps (up and down) @ $26.99/mo., which I find adequate for casual internet use.
I am also a beta tester for their VOIP service, which seems to work fine.
Before signing up, I had read quite a bit about the RF interference issues, and I thought I'd give the service a try to gain a first-hand perspective.
Based on my experience so far, I have not encountered any interference on the AM band on several radios I use regularly. I am not a regular shortwave listener, but I do have a small shortwave radio, and I can't really tell a difference since Current started up here.
I really don't know if Current is doing anything different from other deployments of BPL technology, but I suspect they must be doing something to mitigate interference, or I would think I would have noticed it, or noticed some coverage in the local media.