TMCnet News
Broadband Over Power Lines Showing Initial Success?From Al Bredenberg's VoIP and CRM Blog Irish research firm Research and Markets says they have released a new report about the application of broadband over power lines (BPL) in Manassas, Virginia. BPL promises to deliver broadband access via existing power lines. The municipal utility in Manassas has advanced its pilot program into an early commercial offering. In its news release today ( http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/May/1149079.htm ), Research and Markets describes the project as follows: "Manassas missed its goal of having the entire city -- 12,500 homes and 2,500 businesses -- wired for BPL by mid-2004. Even so, without any advertising, BPL has attracted substantial interest: There are a few hundred users on the system and a backlog of 1,300 requests for service. "Early adopters in Manassas say the system is easy to set up, reliable, and fast. Some customers are being won over from competing broadband Internet options, all of which carry higher prices. Download speeds are comparable to digital subscriber line (DSL) service, although not as fast as the peak speeds achieved over cable modem." At first glance, you might think this is a great idea -- taking advantage of existing infrastructure ... a potential solution to the last-mile problem .... But when we published stories about this previously, I heard back from the American Radio Relay League, who raised some interesting objections. (See my blog entry "BPL a Danger to Amateur Radio?" from 12/23/04 -- http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/bredenberg-voip-crm/voip-crm/bpl-a-danger-to-amateur -radio.asp .) Let me re-quote some of what Allen G. Pitts, media and public relations manager for ARRL, wrote to me at that time: "ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, has participated in testing in a number of the BPL marketing trials and has seen interference to radio reception in each of the sites their staff and volunteers have examined. In many cases, BPL proponents pronounce their marketing trials as being 'successful,' but to ARRL’s knowledge, no BPL trial has included a thorough examination of interference issues, so it is premature to pronounce these tests to be a success .... "Simply put, there is no way that radio frequency signals are going to stay contained in a wire designed to carry normal electric power. It will radiate and pollute the radio spectrum. The FCC’s October 2004 Report & Order recognized this danger to communications and totally barred the BPL companies from using frequencies associated with aeronautics and other governmental agencies. Obviously, these concerns about interference and spectrum pollution were not seen as trivial or resolved by the FCC." ARRL is quick to say that they are not opposed to BPL per se. Recently the ARRL did issue a release about a new BPL technology developed by Motorola "designed from the start with radio interference concerns in mind.": Hams Encouraged by NEW Motorola BPL Technology http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/05/23/1/?nc=1 ----- To read Al Bredenberg's VoIP and CRM Blog, please visit: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/bredenberg-voip-crm/ |