Broadband by power lines....

[Budfred]

For those among us who are limited to dialup for various reasons, including rural locations, I thought this ARTICLE (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110920,00.asp) in PCWorld might be interesting. I think there are popups on the page, but they seem benign.

[Mark Miller]

I have been following this for awhile and hope it comes to fruition. For all of us with broadband it should lead to much cheaper rates. The coolest part of course is that hopefully anyone with electricity will be able to get broadband at a price they can afford.
This is one technology that I can't wait to happen main stream.
Mark:)

[david eaton]

Yes it sounds good. One difference between powerlines and telephone cables is that on tele, each customer has an exclusive connection to the exchange, which can carry broadband data. At the exchange, these can be combined onto fibre/ whatever, at T1 or faster.

However, a power line (3phase) has three live circuits, with a common return. In my experience of testing cables, they have a rather limited high frequency response, so will probably not be capable of carrying a T1 channel. This means that the bandwith available will be shared between ALL the customers who are connected to a particular phase wire.

What this would mean in terms of speeds available I don't know, but I would not expect the same as a broadband connection over telephone line/cable.

At least, those are the conditions here in the UK; elsewhere in the world may well be different.

I may be wrong, indeed I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath.

David

[Budfred]

According to that article: "Providers claim throughput speeds of between 500 kilobits per second and 3 megabits per second, on a par with DSL and cable". There was no mention (that I saw) of slowed speeds. Even if it were slower than a T1 line, it would still be much faster than dialup...

[Mark Miller]

Hi David,
Actually here in the states I think this is really going to happen. slow steps at first and then..... Not sure what's going on in Eng or Europe.
Bud, your right everything else that I have read on this points to at least the same speeds as DSL and Cable and in some cases up to T2.

[sleddog]

It has already happened in Scotland: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3055389.stm

See section "Hi-tech tasters".

[Mark Miller]

Cool, I think this will be a great move foward.
mark:D

[Budfred]

According to that article and another that I read, it is already happening in the USA too, but only on a trial basis to assess viability. We will know if it is working when the cable and telecom companies start suing left and right to stop it....:eek:

[Mark Miller]

Budfred,
the one good thing is that if there is anyone who is as big as the telcos and the cable companys it's the ELECTRIC companies. Let them sue, the gov will back the elec companies because they need the revenue and it's politically the right move [everyone getting well priced broadband] win-win for the gov if they back the electric co's.
I know I am getting way ahead of myself, but this looks like it could be great.
Mark :cool:
One other thing what the telcos and the cable companies need is the electric companies.
If anything it will help to make broadband cheaper through more competion. Cool

[sleddog]

Let's hope it doesn't increase the electric bill...

[david eaton]

Originally posted by Budfred
According to that article: "Providers claim throughput speeds of between 500 kilobits per second and 3 megabits per second, on a par with DSL and cable".

Yes, but that 500 kilobits to 3 megabits would be shared between ALL the consumers connected to that particular phase on the substation.

Divide that by anything up to 40, and it starts to look very slow.

I may be a bit out of date on this, as my experience ended some 6 years ago. I was involved in some of the early trials of data transmission, at the time when high speed meant 9600 bits/sec!

David

[Budfred]

david,

From my reading of the articles on this this type of broadband, it appears that they are addressing that issue and that these speeds are supposed to be there no matter how many users are on at the time. Also, as I understand it, cable connections are already shared by communities so that they really slow down during prime internet time, but people seem to like them anyway...

[Mark Miller]

Somehow I think they have gotten around the slowdowns with cable, at least here in Miami. Tons of people on our system and yet I see very little or no slowdown even in the early evening hours.
I have also read the same thing with electricity and that it will be even better than cable as far as constant speed.
I see the only problem here as being from all the lightning strikes and the power going down.
Mark:)