Texas Bill - Broadband Over Power Line - Pending..

[BamaRob]

From what little I've heard, it's super expensive and still questionable. Unless the technology has improved recently (which it very well may have), they have to install equipment on every transformer to route the data packets around the transformer. It seems the transformers scramble the data rendering it useless. Plus, there's been a lot of opposition from HAM radio operators because of the RF interference caused by BOPL.

I've only had DSL available for almost a year now, and I'm thankful to have it. The increased speeds promised by BOPL would be great. I'd really like to see them get the kinks worked out and make it available everywhere.

Later,

BR

 

[Devildog]

We have BPL here in the city I work at. Here is a site that has some info on it. This is a really good article.
PC World Article on BPL

 

[mwechtal]

What the Pro-BPL articles don't tell you:
It is HIGHLY succeptable to interferance from Ham radio and even CB transmissions.

You'll only be able to get it in the towns/cities, because the equipment is too expensive to deploy out to the boonies. It's only marginally less espensive than DSL or Cable broadband, and theoretically a little slower. In practice, it is much slower.

It interferes with frequencies that Ham radio operators, the military, and disaster agencies use.

It has already been banned in a few countries due to radio interferance.

Disclaimer:
Yes I'm a Ham.

Mike
KC2MDO

 

[kevincook]

Mike is correct about the cost.

There are many downsides to BPL, disaster communications would be near the top of my list, and it won't be economically justifiable for rural locations. They make is sound like they just connect the internet to the electrical grid and everyone has internet access. There is actually quite a bit of equipment that needs to be installed 'close' to the end user. If cable doesn't make sense then BPL won't make sense for the large companies either.

Kevin
KC2MLE

 

[Mike_C]

It's being considered in many states. I think Ohio is considering it too. I don't think the cost will be as high as you might think. Yes, they need to couple the signal past the transformers, but that's a very inexpensive capacitor that will pass the high frequencies and not the 60 Hz power. The HUGE problem is the RF because every power line will turn into a big broadcasting antenna. My brother works on telcommunications projects for Agere (formerly Lucent, formerly AT&T Bell Labs) and he is very concerned about the RF from power lines messing with the signals we are currently running across the phone lines.

It would be nice for the power company though since they could lay off all the meter readers, and install meters that send back the reading over the wire it's being fed from. I've been wondering why that have not tried that for the last 10 years.
I keep my property locked so the meter readers can't get to my
electric meter. After several years of this they installed a meter that broadcasts it's reading out into the airwaves, then the reader can drive past the property and read the signal without entering the property. It seems to work ok when they
actually do it, but they only send out the person with the special receiver about once every 3 months, so I'm still calling in my reading every month...

 

[kevincook]

The ARRL which is the HAM radio organization has actually just decided that some of the newest BPL technology is OK with regards to RF pollution. They are asking the FCC to change the regulations and prohibit the 'dirty' BPL technology and push towards the latest developments. I forget which companies the are supporting specifically but I know that Motorola was one that they have determined has a workable system.

The HAM guys are pretty picky about the RF noise from anything so if they say some BPL is clean enough then I'm sure it is good.

Thanks,
Kevin
KC2MLE