Broad Band over power lines

There have been several trial services running in the UK over several years, but there's no widespread deployment as far as I know. Currently there's one running in Winchester, and IIRC a colleague who looked into it said the speed is 2Gbits/s.

I rather imagine the differences in final power distribution to homes in the UK and US would make it much less economically viable in the US -- typically in the UK some hundreds of homes run from a final stepdown transformer verses less than 10 homes in the US in areas where powerline distribution is likely to be most effective. The cost of the equipment at the transformer and the network connections to such kit is thus going to be much higher per home in the US.

oops, typo -- should read 2Mbits/s

I don't know that I'd agree with this, because I know that the local power company dopes remote reading of house metering through the power lines, and they've managed to sign on the Water Bill folks as well. And this is at the 120/240 side of the transformer (usually with a 14.4/24.9 kV Transformation).

Expensive, most certainly. But obviously achievable.

H.

Thanks for the link.

I called them and they said that they are in the trial phase. The are only in Illinois but the cost to the customers will be around $40/m. He said that the customer would not have to buy any extra equipment.

I haven't even priced satellite prices lately but in the past you had to pay for the equipment and the per month cost was still high. Satellite didn't do games and you still had to use your phone line. If this works it kicks satellites ass. Where my sister lives they don't even have cable TV and it is a long distance call for any call farther than a rock throw. I don't think they have had electricity very long. :)

If they can supply the last mile for 40$ my guess is they can do well in areas where Satellite is the only option.

They might even get current broad band costumers if they cut them a deal. This could be very good news to the "last mile" areas.

Although Broadband distribution over electric lines has its place, simple physics says that the propagation characteristics of a 2-way broadband signal over electric lines is not going to be as good as fiber, coaxial cable, or even a copper DSL or ADSL circuit in a "last mile" area. One alternative that you did not mention is microwave broadband. Here is one article on this technology: FCC's Muleta sees sizzling future for broadband wireless

On Fri, 07 May 2004 14:25:11 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@nospam.xyz (Beachcomber) Gave us:

In other words... Broadbanded my ass. Not a proper path.

Don't bet on BPL. It is the the worst radio interfering service known to man. Can't wait until it is killed.