Broadband to the People: FCC Adopts BPL

Business Wire ^ | 10/14/2004 | Business Wire

[dljordan]

I would have to sat that Michael Powell is a case of nepotism at it's worst.

[clee1]

As soon as I get harmful interference on the ham bands that I can trace to BPL, I'll file a 1 Billion $$$ lawsuit against the utility and the FCC.

[verifythentrust]

If this question is way too ignorant, I apologize in advance. Can the power grid be used to transmit video and audio? Will this replace cable or satellite?

[Boundless]

> ...turn the radios on while on your computers and see
> the distances where the interfences starts.

It's actually not as noisy as I expected. A pocket AM
radio works fine as long as it's 18in or more from the
monitor.

My guess is that the basic problem with BPL is that the
carrier wires aren't twisted-pair (unlike Cat3/5/6), so
the signal radiation is not self-cancelling. It may not
even be balanced.

[commish]

Everyone is talking about the effect on Shortwave, HAM etc etc. There will be one other HUGE VICTIM if BPL cripples the AM bands ---- TALK RADIO!!!!

Almost all Talk Radio -- Rush, Hannity, Boortz, etc etc etc is carried on the AM Band. Disable the AM Band you disable Talk Radio.

[BurbankKarl]

Wait til the new refrigerators scan the UPC labels of your food, and beam them back to the databases! Will you be scared then?

When your health insurance company sees a 12 pack of beer located in your refrigerator?

[dljordan]

Well, of course. It will affect all of these. I'm a huge fan of talk radio and I will be pretty p*ssed if I can't hear my shows. That might be part of the overall plan anyway. They force you off the am bands and onto the internet.

[dljordan]

Taht's something I will leave to the more electronically erudite of our FR friends. I don't however see why it couldn't.

[commish]

They force you off the am bands and onto the internet.

Where they can monitor, and regulate, and classify as political and hate rhetoric, etc etc etc.

Hate to sount tin-foilish, but I do not trust the government to keep thier hands out of the pot.

[cynwoody]

My guess is that the basic problem with BPL is that the carrier wires aren't twisted-pair (unlike Cat3/5/6), so the signal radiation is not self-cancelling. It may not even be balanced.

That's the crux of the matter. It's the transmission lines acting as antennas. DSL and cable use balanced and shielded transmission lines that don't radiate significantly. That's why they haven't been a problem. And of course satellite and other wireless ISP services use frequency bands specifically allocated to them.

My prediction with BPL is it won't fly because of the interference. If the FCC regulates it to point where it doesn't interfere, then its cost advantage will be gone, and the power companies will can it by themselves.

I also predict it will not be the panacea that internet users in the boonies are hoping for. They'll still be last on the list because it will cost to install it on those outlying parts of the power grid. It probably doesn't offer any advantage over extending DSL or cable to the rural areas. If you are really out in the boonies, your best hope is some form of advanced terrestrial wireless internet (satellite works, too, of course, but the long latency hurts internet responsiveness).

[Myrddin]

When near your computer, the interference you hear will be from radiated harmonics. If your screen refreshes at 60 Hz, you will find heavy harmonics at 600 KHz and 1200 KHz on the dial. Your monitor is built with shielding to suppress this kind of radiation to acceptable levels. The BPL signal is sent down long power lines that are suspended on overhead transmission lines. It will be a broad range of frequencies and harmonics of those frequencies. Finding a quiet, usable frequency will be difficult for those who have a choice. For fixed frequency services, the interference will degrade or destroy the ability to use the frequencies.

Hold a standard AM radio near your monitor. Rotate it around so the internal loopstick antenna can pick up the signal. Tune across the band. Listen to garbage your own monitor emits. BPL will be worse than that and will be everywhere an electric powerline runs.

[Myrddin]

The cable industry is every vigilant to find leaks in their wiring. The broadband signal distributed by the cable companies has overlaps on public service frequencies. A "leak" can overwhelm the receiver of a radio in the vicinity and make it impossible to hear the intended signal over the air. BPL doesn't even pretend to keep the signal bottled up like the cable operators. Instead, they will transmit broadband signals over open wires. The electric grid becomes a giant antenna farm to distribute BPL digital noise.

[Myrddin]

There is a large area south of Pocatello, Idaho that can't get DSL. They can get passable service from 802.11b from a few pole mounted sites. The 802.16 WiMAX equipment is being manufactured as we speak. It provides 70 MB/sec service to a 30 mile radius around the antenna. That makes a lot more sense than BPL.

[pointsal]

try DIRECWAY......
works as advertised

[dalereed]

"I wonder what a BPL Network Infrastructure looks like."

Stick your finger in a light socket while looking in a mirror and you will have a good idea! </sarcasm>

[Wilhelm Tell]

This is horrible, just horrible. I think BPL will have a problem of limited bandwidth and this will make it impractical, but they will still force it on us. The power lines were never meant to carry radio signals (digital or otherwise). I imagine they will have to have lots of repeaters to boost the signals -- this is all so inefficient and it will limit bandwidth and speed while at the same time ruining radio communication. It does sound like the big business and big government types have found a perfect way to kill off AM radio, amateur radio and shortwave listening all in one "solution." An inferior mode of transmitting data for the Internet that, oh by the way, will ruin other modes of communication.

[Musket]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.;-)

[dalereed]

"It does sound like the big business and big government types have found a perfect way to kill off AM radio"

Would you believe it's the liberals way of eliminating right wing talk shows that they can't compete with.

[Big Giant Head]

ping for later

[Calvin Locke]

Will you be scared then?

I wonder if Ted Kazcinsky's piece of land is still available?

Would the FBI move his shack back for me?