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12Mbps Powerline Broadband Trial Unveiled
An anonymous reader writes "The tiny state of Tasmania in Australia has kicked off the country's first commercial powerline broadband trial. The service is capable of providing Internet connectivity of up to 12Mbps but during trials, it will be limited to 4Mbps. Costs will range from $12 (A$15) to $67 (A$80) per month for speeds between 256Kbps and 4Mbps. Powerline broadband has received wide support from leading vendors including Intel, Motorola and Cisco Systems -- all of whom support an organisation called the HomePlug Powerline Alliance."
It's kind of sad that these companies have so little respect for the Ham Radio operators.
With all of the evidence showing the damage that the broadband over powerlines causes, this is kind of sad...
Anyperson with common sense and that reads warnings will see that it says. TURN OFF POWER BEFORE OPENING DEVICE. No matter how smart your garage disposal unit is, if you flick that switch at the wall it CAN NOT DO ANYTHING. As for smart fridges etc. A smart fridge would just report on what is needed for it, like new milk, cheese, juice. In Japan they have smart fridges that order needed goods. Things such as defrost/turn-on.off remain manual operations. The only thing I see smart in a stove we be sensors to report that it is working correctly and usage statistics, so that the manufactures can create better devices, you'd never get a remote turn on for a stove, those type functions will still be good old solid buttons and knobs to push.
Okay, double posts are bad form, but I just saw the text underneath the pricing table: "Speed reduction once data usage reaches 150% of included data (to ensure your bill remains under control)".
So in other words, if you pay for the 4Mb/s at about $80/month, you get 2000MB of free data transfer. So you download at full speed for a little over an hour. After that, every megabyte you download after that costs you a dime. Ouch. And I thought Mediacom had a racket running...
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Homeplug is the consumer standard for in house data over powerlines.
HomePlug is also the standard that Motorola is using for their low voltage Canopy system. It operates on the 110/220 side of the transformer, not one the medium voltage lines.
Homeplug has actual hardware based filters to make sure it does not interfere with amateur radio operators. It does not merely change the modulation technique like most BPL providers have done to mitigate interference.
--fatboy
Come to Hamburg, Germany .... here you can get a 25 MBit/s DSL line for 28,99 EUR + 29,95 EUR if you want all this flat.
In addition, you have none of the above bads and no hurricanes, earthquakes et al. Maybe the weather is bad, but who cares if you have that much bandwidth.
Sadly no. If I'm in California, and I'm talking to a flood victim in New Orleans, the BPL in Arizona will block us. The thing people forget about HAM radio is it is single transmitter, around the world. That can ONLY happen when everyone plays very nice. BPL does not place nice.
This fatal flaw will seriously limit the way that BPL can be deployed and will decrease the reliability of a BPL system in any area where it is possible that nearby radio transmitters could be operating. Under the FCC's rules, BPL is an unlicensed device that must accept any interference caused to it by authorized radio services. In the past, and through decades of experience, such interference is rare to other broadband services, such as DSL, cable or satellite. However, in all of the BPL areas tested for susceptibility so far, the unshielded wiring that is used by BPL apparently picks up nearby radio transmitters and overload or otherwise degraded the performance of the system. Although this has been seen at power levels as low as 5 watts from Amateur Radio transmitters, Amateur Radio transmitters can use as much as 1500 watts of power, greatly extending area over which BPL will be unable to tune out these over-the-air signals.
See the ARRL.org website for more info. http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/ 73 de W7COM
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Brodband over Powerlines has been offered in the Allentown/Bethlehem area of Pennsylvania USA, since 2004 by PPL electric utilities.
The upload speeds that TasTel (the company that is currently doing this) depend on which "package" the user buys. Here's the relationship:
256kb/64kb
1Mb/256kb
4Mb/1Mb
So if the user chooses the 256kb down package, they get 64 kb up. There is also a 1Mb down/1Mb up package which is somewhat more expensive then their 1Mb/256Kb package.
All these details and more can be found at their website: http://www.tastel.com.au/bpl/index.html
In fact, this has long been a security issue in HomePlug (which is distinct from BPL, though the submitter seems to have missed that), and there have been various recommendations for inserting a filter to avoid your neighbor being able to snoop your network.
I may not be able to receive because of the BPL interference, but I can still transmit.
... and even if they did, what I'd be doing is PERFECTLY LEGAL.
Legally.
Ansd, I can do so at power levels that will utterly destroy all BPL signals within a half-mile of my truck.
And, that's the FIRST thing I will do when/if the BPL noise shows up **anywhere near** where I live.
The BPL service WILL be taken out, randomly, and the idiot techno-nothings at the power companies won't be able to find me
The unreliable BPL service will be dismissed by the early customers due to poor value. Who wants their Vonage, pr0n surfing, etc., to be randomly interrupted?
Game, set, match.
While you may not think that your neighbor yammering on his CB, or another neighbor listening to broadcast from Radio Swaziland,or listening talk radio on AM broadcast are very important, there are other communications that are also disrupted: HF radio is used by emergency response agencies all over the world. The inadequacy of communications (among other failures of emergency services) was well demonstrated by the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster. BPL will make this worse.
HF radio, unlike cellular telephones and other centralized radio systems, has the ability to comunicate over long distances without any intermediate infrastructure. The is vital for disaster communications where the infrastructure is overloaded or destroyed.
Worst hit would be the poorer nations of the world, where telephone service is often unavailable or unreliable, and much of the communication has depended on HF radio. While the interference at a distance will be less, it will still be strong, very easily strong enough to make a weak signal calling for help in Afria disappear in BPL noise generated in Australia or the US.
It goes both ways: HF radio can also interfere with BPL. I think that, in an area where BPL is interfering with Amateur Radio, that the Amateurs will not hesitate to use more powerful transmitters (if they can afford the electric bill for doing so). These will disrupt BPL, quite easily to the point of being unusable. And I doubt the BPL ISP will let you out of the contract because of such interference! So don't sign up. It's not worth the headache, and the guilt, and angry hams and other angry HF radio users.
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/files/HomePl ug_ARRL_Dec_2000.pdf
Could you please read this, then shut up.
Thanks.
"I can still transmit. Legally. Ansd, I can do so at power levels that will utterly destroy all BPL signals within a half-mile of my truck"
That's just mean & nasty, but I'll be in my van about a mile from you, and will be glad to rag-chew with you for hours on end. Let's see... at 3920 KHz, LSB, with the interference level the way it would be from the BPL, we would need about 1.5 KW PEP, right? The law says we have to use the lowest amount of power for reliable communications, so, as you said, it would be "PERFECTLY LEGAL."
I'm pretty sure the US has all of the above except for Maori. Off the top of my head:
e nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&oi=def more&q=define:Maori
Deadly Spiders - brown recluse, black widow, though actual deaths are unlikely. Loss of limbs due to gangrene is a more common outcome, and a lot of pain is more common yet.
Deadly Snakes - assorted rattlesnakes, and others. these are likely to cause more damage if you get bit, but bites are much easier to avoid.
Deadly Sharks - we get shark deaths/bites occassionally, though you're much more likely to die by lightning strike.
So now lets find out what a maori is
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&hs=kMG&lr=&cli
which indicates maori are the natives of new zealand. I'm unclear on how natives of new zealand would be more likely to kill you in australia than the US. Are there a lot of murderous emigrees?
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Broadband in Australia is still expensive when you compare directly to other countries. This is the plan I'm on: http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-isp.cfm?id=24&p=5574 and it is fairly good value. (Link is to Whirlpool/Broadband choice, which is a comprehensive listing of all broadband providers and plans in Australia.)
It was only a few years ago Telstra/Bigpond had a full monopoly and charged around $80/m for 512kbps and 3GB/month, 15c/MB thereafter with no limit (reports of $2000+ bills being charged to single mothers). And they charged their wholesale customers the same or more for the same port, as well as being the major bandwidth provider. Telstra controlled 10/12 things an ISP needed.
Now BP has less of a monopoly but all ADSL providers still have to deal with Telstra (either using T's DSLAM ports or paying lots to put their own DSLAM equipment into the exchanges).
Rolling out an alternative network, either BPL or wireless, is the only way to cut Telstra out of the equation, but the startup costs are higher so prices are higher to get the return on investment.
--
no sig for you. come back one year.