Slashdot Mirror
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."
That gets me electrified!
I was getting worried. It was already past noon local time and I hadn't seen a /. submission on Google.
I thought that internet-over-power lines was pretty much a dead concept - not simply due to the fact that you had to largely redo your power infrastructure anyways so that it doesn't filter out your data, but because by the very nature of modulating a signal on a high power wire, you're building the world's largest radio transmitter network, and flooding everything with radio interference.
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
Hasn't this tech been show to be damaging to Ham radios? Something that is usually very helpful in times of emergency, when phones and sometimes power is even out?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Now Godzilla will be taking my internet down as well.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
I wonder if power-line internet service offerings will feature "install yourself" kits? Perhaps this is one of the things keeping power-line internet from taking off - the installation procedure could be a bit tricky?
Next, you're going to tell me that have that intraweb on cell-phones, too...
Who did what now?
Even though the technology may still need some polishing, it is already being pursued in Europe.
It's unfortunate that a company that wants to do no evil is investing in activity that will earn it the emnity of most every amateur radio operator in the country...
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
"their internet over broadband ventures"
Internet over broadband? Hmm, I could see that catching on...
Wait... Does this mean I can search the web from my toaster finally?
-FL
They've got the internet over broadband now?
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 find it interesting that in this day and age of moving towards transmitting signals without wires, no one was ever able to safely transmit power wirelessly ala Tesla's ideas. Without power lines, to latch on to, perhaps see more efforts focused on long-distance wireless internet?
Loomis
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communicat ion
Let hope they follow the same plan as their other new products and have a looong free beta period... Somebody send me an invite!
I live in Cincinnati and I subscribe to Current's BPL service. Notwithstanding Slashdotters' speculation, there has been no epidemic of bad TV recpetion. I'm not a Ham operator but am not aware of any outcry there either. Oh, and Current's broadband service is fast, cheap, and reliable. I pay at least $10/mo less than comparable cable modem service, and I have never once had a service outage. I'd recommend anyone give this (awesome) technology a try before badmouthing it.
BPL *also* interferes with public emergency service radios. So when there's an emergency, ALL the emergency responders can potentially be interfered with. What a great idea, eh?
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
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.
For those who are looking for data on BPL and its effects on radio transmissions, this is a good place to start:
l
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/aud-vid.htm
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.
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.
When you run in the unlicensed spectrum, you agree not to provide any interference on licenced frequencies.
VOTE!
After probing yourself, be sure to turn on your firewall.
And don't forget to discard the surgical gloves.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
Sure, signals can get into the wire when a strong station is close by, but they always get out.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.