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AT&T Begins Testing High-Speed Internet Over Power Lines (reuters.com)
AT&T has started trials to deliver high-speed internet over power lines. The company announced the news on Wednesday and said that trials have started in Georgia state and a non-U.S. location. Reuters reports: AT&T aims to eventually deliver speeds faster than the 1 gigabit per second consumers can currently get through fiber internet service using high-frequency airwaves that travel along power lines. While the Georgia trial is in a rural area, the service could potentially be deployed in suburbs and cities, the company said in a statement. AT&T said it had no timeline for commercial deployment and that it would look to expand trials as it develops the technology.
"We think this product is eventually one that could actually serve anywhere near a power line," said Marachel Knight, AT&T's senior vice president of wireless network architecture and design, in an interview. She added that AT&T chose an international trial location in part because the market opportunity extends beyond the United States.
"We think this product is eventually one that could actually serve anywhere near a power line," said Marachel Knight, AT&T's senior vice president of wireless network architecture and design, in an interview. She added that AT&T chose an international trial location in part because the market opportunity extends beyond the United States.
Be grateful for the freedom you have to enjoy new technologies like high speed internet delivered over power lines. You have these freedoms because of American troops fighting against terrorists in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Without the brave sacrifices made by our brave men and women in the United States military, we wouldn't be free to enjoy new technology like internet over power lines.
Ham radio interference problem solved?
Or do we have to pay to fund for emergency communications now/screw Ham?
Are they going to break power-line neutrality?
What a nightmare of local power utilities they'll have to negotiate with, all of them wanting various size cuts or just stealing and implementing the tech on their own.
In the US, there's a swath of radio band that is reserved. First for the US government (e.g. military), then for licensed amateur radio operators. I think there's a tertiary option where if $user only uses less than some-small-number-of-miliwatts. But the higher precedence one trumps the lower ones.
If this is going to be on ham radio frequencies, hams are going to essentially be able to cite FCC regs and say "shut that shit off" due to interference. Hams are GOOD at triangulating interferance, and if they discover it's coming from *all around them* they're going to speak up *quick*.
Remember, Hams are folks who have spent their own money to get radio gear, and then use that radio gear to provide emergency communications in the event of a disaster. On 9/11 I took my handset to the local hospital in case land line phones and cell phones went down. Fortunately I wasn't needed, but ... you do not want to fuck with free emergency communications.
da w00t. mtfnpy?
I need you to power-cycle your modem; turn your entire house off, wait 15 seconds, then turn your entire house back on again
I dunno about this.
If this is going to be on ham radio frequencies, hams are going to essentially be able to cite FCC regs and say "shut that shit off" due to interference. Hams are GOOD at triangulating interferance, and if they discover it's coming from *all around them* they're going to speak up *quick*.
I'd bet a pizza that AT&T has received assurances from Ajit Pai that the protests of hams will be ignored this time. Power line data has been tried before. It always makes a mess of the radio spectrum. Hams file the paperwork, and it goes away. Until the next time. This is the next time, but it might be a little different from the other times, since we have a blatantly corrupt chairman of the FCC doing what we all thought Tom Wheeler would do but didn't. I'm sure Mr. Wheeler was a great disappointment to his former employers.
This would be a hideous EMI generator. It would be insecure by design.
Power lines are not designed to be constant impedance, and not designed to propagate high frequencies.
Ever hear a high voltage power line insulator sizzle when it's raining? That sort of noise will wipe out any information being transmitted down the line.
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[...] cite FCC regs and say "shut that shit off"
You say that like you think ATT won't just top off their bribes to make Ajit Pai say the interference isn't a problem and is actually a good thing...
Please! As someone living in rural America, please, please, please bring it! I can only get (very lucky to have it too) 1.5mbp DSL from CenturyLink. No other provider is available and people just down the street from me have ZERO internet access other than through shitty services like HughesNet, which costs more and has heavy data limits that even with 1.5mbp DSL I'd eat in less than 1-2 days as we stream everything, music, movies, TV, etc. Can't even get a solid FM signal where we are, unless you enjoy static and barely get a single bar for cell service with Verizon. If you have another cell provider, good luck getting a signal.
"...high-frequency airwaves that travel along power lines."
Did I miss the meeting where it became de rigueur to just make "science" up as you go along?
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As well as Power over Ethernet have been solved problems for at least 10-15 years.
The title option is waveguided maser transmission of digital signals over powerline, essentially the same as cable TV only using power lines instead of coax. The issues with it include radiated energy from long distance power lines (which as a result of the length of the lines can act like HUGE miles spanning antennas), the inability to hop transformers (meaning you need hardware at every transformer in order to continue communicating over higher/lower voltage links, similiar to cable with its distribution boxes up on the telephone poles), and last but not least competing standards for the communication protocols, each of which can interfere with other units on the same line.
By doing this they will require building out another cable-like medium plugged directly onto the high voltage lines, where failures could knock out some or all of the electric grid. EM interference which could cause degradation for HAM operators, wifi users, or microwave/satellite internet users, some of whom may have it as their only means of communication. And lastly: yet another proprietary standard locking people into equipment which is only suitable for the one purpose, interferes with alternatives and is being used to cover for the fact that AT&T got paid billions for a fiber rollout wherein they pocketed the money and then charged us all up the ass for shitty copper connections anyways, until verizon gave them the bright idea that if they pull their copper they can claim previous restrictions on them were tied to the copper and not to their status as a private communications company with monopoly status over multiple regions.
We managed to get electric and phone to every home and cable to most...we can get fiber to all of them. Stop screwing around with these other stupid techs.
AT&T has started trials to deliver high-speed internet over power lines.
What's the competition for power lines in the average neighborhood?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Yes
I'd bet a pizza...
Is that a pizza bought with bitcoin or with real currency?
IIRC what I read on other sources, this time around, AT&T is using the three TRANSMISION lines (115KiloVolts to 500KiloVolts) as a waveguide.
This is not your BPL stuff to the home. This is not going in the 110/220/480volts powerlines.
And If they intend to transmit 1Gbps, they better operate at VERY high frequencies. Higher than HAM.
Probably intended to feed data to basestations in rural areas.
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Info is wrong, this does travel over the distribution lines.
By bad, sorry
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
In Phoenix AZ the power provider SRP has fiber buried in the ground beneath the power lines. No need to send signals over the power lines when burying fiber is cheap and easy.
http://www.srptelecom.com
somebody wake up at&t.
I'm not an EE type, but I can't help but wonder how this works with any reliability behind it.
Power is inherently noisy. Especially at my house if I'm to believe what the UPS tells me.
It's unshielded, thus will pick up everything and its brother and cause problems with the HF bands.
I'm sure you've heard the effect when turning on a light-switch with an active speaker running. ( pop )
How the hell do you get the signal across the transformers along the path ?
Maybe it comes with some goofy ( of course it's going to be proprietary, but they'll rent you one ) router or
switch that just plugs into an unfiltered receptacle ?
( Still doesn't explain how that signal is going to get past the transformer )
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And up things really go down?
E Proelio Veritas.
And If they intend to transmit 1Gbps, they better operate at VERY high frequencies. Higher than HAM.
The amateur radio service has allocations above 1 GHz. Lots of them.
Remember, Hams are folks who have spent their own money to get radio gear, and then use that radio gear to provide emergency communications in the event of a disaster.
And they are wonderful people for doing this. But, keep in mind that the other 99.9% when there is no emergency going on, they are using it to chat with people on the other side of the globe.
So I--and all my neighbors--have to give up on 1Gb/sec Internet so that you can chat with Ivan in Ukraine?
they are using it to chat with people on the other side of the globe.
They are also using it to train and practice for the times when lives depend on it.
So I--and all my neighbors--have to give up on 1Gb/sec Internet so that you can chat with Ivan in Ukraine?
No, you just have to use a system that doesn't obliterate existing uses of the radio spectrum, that is already recognized as a backup communications system when disaster strikes.
BPL was used as an experiment a few years ago in a community nearby. The interference to HF ham radio and the CB frequencies extended about a block or so in each direction. The problem works both ways though. If you keyed up a transmitter on CB or Ham at the 50-100 watt level, the BPL would overload, quit, be silent for a few seconds, then recommence.
I'd bet a pizza...
Is that a pizza bought with bitcoin or with real currency?
Doesn't matter cause it's Little Caesar's anyway. Pass.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
The Police use radios to call for help if they get in trouble. They also have a legal monopoly on those frequencies, and guns. I expect they will find a way to shut that noise off.
as anyone who has used ethernet over power socket can attest
https://www.greentechmedia.com...
This isn't going to go away until ATT actually flip the switch and then ARRL/rest of world start sueballing for wiping out the low end HF bands
I guess NASA won't be too happy with some of their HF/LF comms as well, or any spook agency that used equipment on that frequency that nobody has throught about
Or anyone that licensed those bands from the FCC (and outside of the US as well).
I for one hope that this gets turned on used, and then seen for the disgrace of a decision it should have been and then those responsible get sued with no 'golden parachute' (there's too much of that shit-dodging crap going on)
I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I couldn't hear your rational argument over the uproarious laughter of Ajit & Donald, and the cacophony of gold being thrown at them by telcos.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Actually, we don't have to do anything. If people, government, monied interests, or some combination thereof want to change the status quo, they will.
Relegating hams to non-interference instead of service providers would honestly make way more sense. In the event of an emergency where there's a local internet outage, any restrictions won't matter since a) there won't be anything to interfere with, b) prosecution of almost any law requires mens rea (criminal intent) and trying to save lives is the opposite of that, and c) nobody is going to have time to track down operators anyway.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
If you're going to use common carrier infrastructure to deliver a service, does that make you a common carrier?
You know how on CSI they can zoom in on a 640x480 video camera and see the filed-off serial number on a gun? Sending lots of information over an AC power line is like that. There are many basic electromagnetic hurdles, many of them quite intractable. You have the issues of bandwidth over bare wires, bandwith through transformers, all the noise-supression capacitors across the power line, line noise from light-dimmers, fluourescent tubes, dozens of nearby switching-mode power supplies, lightning, salt on power-line insulators, corona on high-voltage lines, power-factor-compensated switching-mode power supplies that switch all through the AC cycle, LED lamps, streetlights, light-switches, brushed and brushless electric motors, illegal transmission and interference with amateur, land-mobile, radio-telescope and CB, and more.
You mean they should give up their chat so you can have yours?
Actually, we don't have to do anything.
Oh, for Christ's sake. I'm sorry your first language isn't English and you can't recognize standard idioms.
In the event of an emergency where there's a local internet outage, any restrictions won't matter since a) there won't be anything to interfere with
And now you show it isn't a language problem, it's a brain problem.
Nice that someone in the USA has started implementing this.
Belgium had it 18 years ago, so it's nice that we are finally seeing here in the states.
and I'm very glad it is being revisited.