While ADSL, Satellite, Cable and Wi-Fi broadband are the most popular ways of offering broadband to consumers without installing new cabling, there is another approach being tested over a connection that nearly everyone is guaranteed to have - The AC power line. Hydro-Québec in Montreal plans on offering its customers access to broadband over their existing power cables to compete with cable and telephone services. Some experts predict that this approach may offer up to five times faster throughput than a high-speed cable TV connection.
Installation is fairly cheap as the lines are already in place and 'access-points' can be any electrical outlet in the home It is just a matter of plugging in the PC and the special power-outlet modem and you are online. There has been some concern about interference for those who also use their electrical cabling for television reception, but it has been pointed out that these two services can run simultaneously over the same power-line without any issues. Hydro-Québec expects to start testing this service in January.
MONTREAL - Hydro-Québec is planning to offer high-speed internet service over its power lines to compete with similar services from cable and telephone companies.
The utility already uses signals over its power lines to control stoplights, but now it wants to adapt it to offer internet access.
Some experts say such a service could be up to five times faster than high-speed cable internet service.
Jim Carroll, author of "Surviving the Information Age," said the addition of the new service could be great for consumers.
"If we have that many participants in the broadband marketplace then the real impact is perhaps it's going to help to keep prices down or drive down the monthly price," said Carroll.
Jean-Paul Galarneau, of the Quebec cable company Vidéotron, said its service will stand up to the competition.
"Videotron has to compete with satellite, we're doing pretty well today, and we're ready to fight with any competitor," said Galarneau.
But some broadcasters use electrical wires as antennas for radio signals and are concerned that the internet signals could interfere with radio and television reception.
Broadcast expert Jacques Bouliane said the internet signal could completely ruin television reception.
"Even if you don't subscribe to the service, you would get interference from it," he said.
Hydro said it won't be a problem, and pointed out that interference doesn't occur over cables that provide both television and internet service.
German utilities company RWE started offering Internet service over power lines the summer of 2001, but went out of the business in 2002. Scottish Hydro-Electric offers broadband Internet service over its power lines.
Canadian tech company Nortel ran tests of the technology in Britain in the late 1990s and concluded that it would be far too expensive to adapt power grids to carry internet signals.
Hydro-Québec said it will start testing the service in January and hopes to offer the service in a few years.
If this broadband approach proves popular, it could mean the end of being too far away from a cable/ADSL ISP to access broadband. All the Electricity Company needs to do is add a repeater every few miles at transformers without the worry of adding new costly lengthy cables. It would be nice if this approach would be perfected for carrying telephone and cable TV channels also as this would mean the end of constantly digging up the streets just to add more cabling to houses that already have a power-line. It would also be handy to be able to plug the TV and telephone into any outlet without worrying about extra cables and sockets.
It may be just another few years before nearly every house has access to broadband in some fashion. It looks like the movie industry may even exploit this and could make optical video discs obsolete in the next few years. For example, if a country decided to upgrade its entire electrical grid to be broadband enabled, then streaming based movie rentals or even movie purchases can be made available to anyone with a compatible player and a regular household electrical outlet to plug it in to. Unfortunately, fair-use backups may even be ruled out as there is no physical media to get lost, damaged or worn out.
I read about this a few years ago on Cnet glad to see they are finally taking steps to get this technology going.
that would rock!
Facebook
Twitter