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Electric Companies Get Involved With Broadband

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the who-isn't-these-days dept.

Billosaur writes "The Marketplace Morning Report on NPR has an interesting piece on how electric companies are getting into the high-speed Internet business with 'Broadband over Power Lines', or BPL." From the article: "By purchasing the right equipment power companies can quickly offer Internet service to millions of new customers. There are several pilot projects being launched in the US, including one in the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville. That service is being offered by Duquesne Broadband -- a spinout of the local power company.'"

5 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Would be ok if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The power line wasn't a giant freaking unshielded antenna! This tehcnology has been effecting communications gear all over the place. Its a very very bad idea in its current form.

    http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/

    1. Re:Would be ok if... by dpaton.net · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's more than a bad idea, it's a forking NIGHTMARE. Even for non-hams like me, the radiated fields from the lines will cause all kinds of problems. BPL produces a horiffic amount of conducted line noise, in violation of the FCC's own regulations, and further pollute an already overcrowded section of bandwidth (DC to light). BPL may be good for the power companies' profit margins, but it's bad for EVERYONE.

      And that's my professional opinion.

      -dave
      EE, currently working on EMC compliance

      --
      This is not a sig. this is a duck. quack.
    2. Re:Would be ok if... by bobthecow · · Score: 5, Informative

      Do you mean to be comparing the speed of the data (Mbps) to the frequency of the powerline? Where are you trying to get at with that calculation?

      The issue at hand here is that powerlines are unshielded. They were never intended to carry RF, and act as very, very big antennas when they are used in this way.

      Once you load up a power line with a radio signal, you have the potential to start messing with communications all over the spectrum. The noisiest response to this has been from Amateur Radio operators, but government agencies who might be affected also think BPL is a bad idea. It's not a particularly good idea to knock out communications by the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other emergency response agencies.

      To use an analogy, think about how the water lines in your house would respond if you pressurized them beyond their capacity. They'd leak, yes? Or how about using them to carry corrosive chemicals instead of water? They weren't designed to do that, and it will cause problems.

  2. and i was just reading by wherley · · Score: 5, Informative

    in the latest QST http://www.arrl.org/qst/ about the FCC ignoring amateur radio ongoing complaints about BPL system interference.
    new BPL complaint here: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/05/100/
    system operator response here:
    http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/files/COMTek .pdf

  3. The problems with BPL by wb8wsf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    BPL is one of those things which sounds good or at least interesting
    at the start, but the deeper you go the less decent it gets.

    The problem boils down to the fact that a BPL system emits RF (radio
    frequency) energy, causing interference to entities that use those
    frequencies. The FCC has been put into an interesting spot here, as
    they realize that the problems generated by it are real, but are also
    being pushed by the Bush administration to move forward on this.

    Ham radio operators are definitely negatively affected by this. Hams
    by their nature deal with "weak signals", which the noise generated
    by BPL tends to clobber, making many of the "shortwave" (ie, below
    30MHz) bands less than useful.

    If you care to see a pretty good response to this go to www.arrl.org
    and look for BPL.

    This is a real horror for hams. Least anyone think that ham radio
    is out of date in this era of advanced technology, talk with officials
    down south who dealt with Katrina, or in Neq York City on September 11th.
    BPL pits big money interests against litterally amateurs, with the latter
    group figting back, and being at least partly successful, in getting
    the FCC to deal/recognize interference complaints, and getting these
    systems cleaner.

    What will happen, I cannot say. But I look to systems in Europe
    and Asia where broadband exists and doesn't use BPL, and see systems
    which offer far better service.

    --STeve Andre'
    amateur callsign WB8WSF