IBM Bringing Powerline Broadband Back?

KindMind writes "IBM, in partnership with International Broadband Electric Communications, appears to be bringing back powerline broadband back from the dead. This time, the idea is to build out in rural areas not currently serviced by broadband, and isn't for competing with other broadband solutions. From the article: 'Their strategy is to sign up electric cooperatives that provide power to sparsely populated areas across the eastern United States. Rather than compete toe-to-toe with large, entrenched cable or DSL providers, IBEC is looking for customers that have been largely left out of the shift to high-speed Internet.'"

Comments

Why others failed

[Reziac]

I don't know for sure, but it strikes me that having a big tech player like IBM behind it will make it a lot more likely to succeed. And yes, it's very much needed -- much of rural North America (I'd guess somewhat over half the total land mass outside of metro areas) has no practical broadband available, and no hope of ever being in range of cable, DSL, or even fixed wireless.

Re:Why others failed

[nebaz]

So then why are they in range of power? It seems like certain things only happen when they are mandated to be so, like electricity.

Re:Why others failed

[Reziac]

Electricity and basic phone lines have been in most of the American hinterland for decades -- tho there are parts of Montana that got power in my lifetime, and still lack phone service. Some parts of California still lack both. But overall, power and phone lines are reasonably ubiquitous.

However -- being in range of DSL is not. Rural phone lines won't support it, being many miles too far from the stations (range limit: about 3 miles). Cable has even less rural penetration. Fixed wireless/highspeed cellphone access is purely line of sight, which leaves much of the mountain west right out. Satellite is pricey and to my understanding, still not wholly practical.

Thus there are still big swaths of American where power-line access may be the most practical route; indeed, it may be the ONLY route for broadband of any sort.

I'm less than 50 miles from Los Angeles and 15 miles from a half-million pop suburb, yet I'm in an area that can't get DSL or cable (in fact I can't get better than 26k on POTS). Two years ago fixed wireless became available here.. but if my house was 50 feet further west, I'd be out of the necessary line of sight. This situation is a great deal more common than urban/suburban folk realise.

Hmm.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I hope that the swaths of America that have sucktastic access to conventional infrastructure weren't planning on using ham radio for anything...

Re:Hmm.

[yahooglesoft]

Almost all of my Ham friends simply detest the idea of BPL because of the interference it gives. Its not just us hams that get hurt by this but other commercial and government frequencies that are in the lower range. If they would spend the money to properly shield the electrical lines to remove interference then I'd love to have BPL.

Re:Hmm.

[Mwongozi]

the FCC is effectively denying Americans the right to hear news and ideas from other countries.

Sure, because, it's not like internet access is useful for that, or anything.

Re:Hmm.

[faedle]

Internet access can be very easily filtered. HF, not so easy.

Although, Broadband-over-Powerlines seems to solve both problems. Put the communications over an easily controlled technology, while simultaneously "jamming" a not-so-easily controlled one.

Easy Scrambled Egg Machines Can Be Yours

[Bruce Perens]

1. Defeat the interlock on the door of your microwave oven.
2. Insert head.
3. Push button.
Voila! Scrambled eggs!

Re:Power line ISP?

[TubeSteak]

Any signal you push over that line had better have a helluva lot of error correction. Given it tops out at 3 megabits per second, on a shared link... with 800 MHz of bandwidth to work with... That should give you an idea of just how much the Suck factor is (Low Q for you techies)

If it ends up being cheaper than satellite and faster than dial-up, it'll be a winner in various underserved parts of the country.

Re:Elusive market.

[Anonymous Coward]

What? I'm actually talking about California. A very rich part of California. Still, even rich people don't necessarily want to shell out $60 a month for cable TV + internet when they get the TV part for free. I know a guy who lives in the Santa Cruz mountains and owns his own business who is in exactly this situation.

As a matter of fact, just about anywhere that isn't a major metropolitan center has pretty bad DSL coverage as far as I can tell. If you aren't right downtown DSL drops out like crazy or they won't even connect you.

Re:Technical problems still exist, why not WiMax?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because WiMax won't work in some segments of the market space that BPL if you do it right (See: Corridor Systems...) that WiMax can't because you can't get LOS with mountains in the way but you can G-line (Google for it...) propagate or BPL transmit signals on a powerline.

Re:Cool...

[Migraineman]

Sooo ... you look forward to "getting away from it all" by going to your cabin in the wilderness and surfing the internet? Couldn't you pull the shade on your condo, pop open a new pine scented air freshener, and do the same thing from the convenience of your current location? Pardon me for pointing this out, but your argument isn't compelling.

Re:Elusive market.

[theaveng]

I live near a city that, in terms of population, is somewhere around 110 in terms of population (Lancaster PA), and even though I'm 10 miles from the center I still have access to 6000 kbit/s DSL.

>>>people who live too far from any hub to get DSL

How far away can asymmetric DSL service of say, 500 kbit/s reach? Answer: According to cisco.com it's approximately 10 miles, so if you live anywhere within ten miles of the switching station you should be able to get broadband DSL. The price would probably be higher than usual - but still cheaper than a satellite service - and a lot faster than dialup.

IMHO Congress should force the telephone monopolies to install DSLAMs for any customer who requests it. If the Baby Bells complain, they can be ordered to use the rural access fees to cover the costs.