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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."
I have Comcast cable internet and I'm pretty happy with my download speeds. The thing that I wish they would allow for is higher upload speeds.
So this new service offers 12Mbps download... but what are the upload speeds?
but even with a UPS, you'll no longer be able to surf the 'net if the power grid goes down. The data signal is going through all the same places as the regular power.
A small price to pay though, does anyone know the maximum range on this technology?
c'mon, guys. Is it asking too much to report the ACTUAL bandwidth used in the trial, instead of some arbitrarily-high number that the users involved will never actually see??
So, any outlet could be an internet connection? I envision web cams and microphones left in every room by your crazy ex-girlfreind... Kind of expensive to have to replace all appliances, electronics, and outlets after an ugly breakup.
Too bad it's going to knock out so many communications bands, and that it's going to require major rejigging of power lines, and leaves open the question as to why power companies just don't sling fiber on their poles.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Perhaps you could explain how precisely equipment is going to be tested when pr0n-over-power-lines is making spaghetti of the frequencies.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The tiny state of Tasmania
Just to give some idea of what 'tiny' is in this context, Tasmania is about half way between West Virginia and South Carolina in terms of area.
The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
The tiny state of Tasmania Tasmania is about 68,000 sq km in area, which makes it bigger than West Virginia, Massachussetts, etc. Would you write "The tiny state of New Jersey"?
Who will want to keep their Ham systems operational when they can't use it except when the power is out?
When the hurricanes hit last year (direct hits by three of them over about a months time) we found that cell phones failed almost immediately then a few hours after the power went out the land lines failed, their battery backups exhausted.
:)
We were without power for about a week. During that time the only communications we had were one channel that came in over the rabbit ears on the TV or the radio. The generator and transfer switch I had was able to power much of the house (no A/C) but the cable service and cable modem where down.
Personally I think having separate infrastructure for various services would be better. Using the power grid for not only power but communications puts a lot of things in one basket. One failure ala the L.A. outage yesterday would cut power as well as other communications. With the trend toward voice over IP/broadband if the power goes out you would lose telephone type services as well.
Currently if the power goes out land line phones will continue to work, assuming you have a phone that does not require power
Bundling data and phone services with power should also come with a much more resiliant infrastructure where a cable cut (L.A.) does not plunge millions into the dark.
It's physics. Power lines are big monsterous antennas and there's no getting around it. Why should power companies get to puke RF into unlicensed bands? It's their problem to solve, not the problem of people who use bands that are going to get squashed.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Which would add greatly to the weight of the line, so they'd have to re-engineer the whole distribution system, pole spacings, guy wire strengths, everything.
As often has been said in this BPL debate, we'd all be better off if they just strung some fiber.