Broadband through your Power Lines!

[ShawnReeves]

Saw a short story on PBS about Broadband through your exsisting Power Lines.
This may bring the cost of Broadband down if it go's well. :Q
Heres a Link I found on it. >>>Click here<<<

 

[Jugernot]

THat has been around a LONG time... as long as Cable modems at least.

 

[DanJ]

Yea...this is one of those technologies they've been talking about forever...that hasn't lead to anything..

 

[Looney]

I'm not sure about other power companies, but our local power company wasn't interested in the technology for some stupid reason. I hear Singapore started a big project on this a few years ago, i wouldn't doubt if it's already fully implemented there.

 

[FoBoT]

there is a section for "other" broadband including this technology on dslreports (bbreports, whatever they are called now)
it isn't maturing very fast

 

[LAUST]

Weird... but hey Cable modem finally got to my area last week

Bye bye Qwest and your slow ADSL

 

[rh71]

I hope this works out, however long it takes... Cablevision is such a monopoly here on broadband... :|

 

[Moonbeam]

I read about this ages ago and remember it was supposed to be really fast too. Sure isn't very fast arriving. I was hoping to put my computer in the freezer and use it as a cooler and a modem.

 

[RossMAN]

I wish broadband were cheaper.

I'd even settle for slower 256k DSL. Ideally my total cost would be $40/mo including 256k DSL with no d/l or u/l limits, regular local phone service including all the damn taxes and fees we have to pay.

 

[FoBoT]

here is a BBC story about it linked

The trials were a big success, offering up to 2MB per second - much faster than most broadband services on offer in the UK - for the price of £25.

Speed and price of any commercial service has yet to be decided but the firm says it will be competitive.

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
I wish broadband were cheaper.

I'd even settle for slower 256k DSL. Ideally my total cost would be $40/mo including 256k DSL with no d/l or u/l limits, regular local phone service including all the damn taxes and fees we have to pay.

Phone tax is getting off the hook ain't it! :|

 

[Moonbeam]

RossMAN, did you try canceling and signing up for the half price for 3 months new subscriber's deal?

 

[Moonbeam]

By the way, anybody know the state of two way satelite. I want to move to the country, but I don't want to go back to telephone modem. Yuck!

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
By the way, anybody know the state of two way satelite. I want to move to the country, but I don't want to go back to telephone modem. Yuck!

Here is one I know of

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
RossMAN, did you try canceling and signing up for the half price for 3 months new subscriber's deal?

Already tried that, doesn't work with QWest and my ISP. I also learned that EarthLink DSL has some stupid cap of 120MB/day, something like that.

Oh well, once you try broadband you're hooked ... just wish this drug were cheaper.

 

[Parrotheader]

Well I can understand why most of the utility companies are a bit reluctant to dive headfirst into this area. You're basically talking about creating a whole new service area that while it might seem attractive to us (and even to them as a new revenue path) is FULL of potential pitfalls. You're talking about creating a whole new market which needs to be supported by its own customized areas of customer service, technical support and accounting. Not to mention all the technical and field staff required to maintain it (even though it runs off 'existing' infrastructure, I'm sure it's not that easy to implement from their end.) Plus they've got to spend a small fortune promoting it and then deal with any potential legal issues.

 

[Czar]

I can get that and my uncle has it. Been hearing both good and bad things about it, good is that its FAST, bad is some lag in games (not sure though so dont take my word for it) and then that speed varies, sometimes fast and sometimes slow.

http://www.fjoltengi.is/web/
for whoever understands my funny language

 

[Kenazo]

the idea of sending data over the power lines is nothing new. In the 60's I believe it was, or maybe earlier they sent audio signals through them, instead of using radio waves to broadcast music. I can't remember what the company was called, but they evolved into the company that now does all the music for the big malls, and department stores etc.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
By the way, anybody know the state of two way satelite. I want to move to the country, but I don't want to go back to telephone modem. Yuck!

i test it at work periodically

the two main problems are uplink speed (very slow) and latency (mainly a problem for gamers)

if those two problems don't bother you (and the $ is ok), it works (except when it rains hard, just like satellite TV)

 

[Czar]

and another bad thing about it, you can get disconected easily if you have bad wiring and some heavy amp sucking device goes on, like a washing machine

 

[Moonbeam]

I thought two way was supposed to solve uplink slowness. Is it slow or bandwidth limited, or do you mean the same thing? For browsing I thought the modem speed to the site was was the hang up in the older satelite down modem up system.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Parrotheader
Well I can understand why most of the utility companies are a bit reluctant to dive headfirst into this area. You're basically talking about creating a whole new service area that while it might seem attractive to us (and even to them as a new revenue path) is FULL of potential pitfalls. You're talking about creating a whole new market which needs to be supported by its own customized areas of customer service, technical support and accounting. Not to mention all the technical and field staff required to maintain it (even though it runs off 'existing' infrastructure, I'm sure it's not that easy to implement from their end.) Plus they've got to spend a small fortune promoting it and then deal with any potential legal issues.

Cable did it just fine. And the potential for this is big, seeing as how more and more people want broadband.

 

[GLudlow]

If it works, great... i just hope they can add it through the electric bill

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I thought two way was supposed to solve uplink slowness. Is it slow or bandwidth limited, or do you mean the same thing? For browsing I thought the modem speed to the site was was the hang up in the older satelite down modem up system.

the uplink speed of the hughes/directtv systems i have tested is supposed to be "64Kbps" , but when i run speed tests, i get about 40-45k

then, for our business offices, we use VPN to connect back to corporate, so you slap the Cisco box into the mix and speed drops to about 20kbps up stream

latency is always about 1 sec. , this is due to the distance to the satellite, there really isn't anything you can do about that, except do some local cacheing/proxy stuff, but that only works for certain types of things

the power or something of the upstream transmitter limits the upstream speed to about the same as an analog modem, only advantage is you don't have to use a modem, just the dish. in our case, much of our traffic is up (from office to corporate), so this slow up stream speed is a problem. if you are just web surfing or downloading large files, then it doesn't matter. the latency is usually only a problem for games or if you use some type of interactive forms where the browser and web server have to communicate inside of a single page

my personal opinion is that is still needs work, they need a stonger/faster upstream transitter , but even then, the latency will always exist.