W1RFI
join:2003-05-12
Burlington, CT
| reply to juyride
Re: Why hide the evidence? nope
I am not at all sure that the viability of BPL has been completely confirmed to date. In those cases where electric utility folks are willing to share information with me, I am hearing reports that range from "it did work well" to "we had trouble keeping it going from day to day." In Shelton, CT, I experienced that firsthand, as the BPL system that was there was connected to a WiFi hotspot in a local coffee shop, and the system would stop working from minute to minute.
One BPL integrator has put up a blog showing the history of their getting it working:
»www.sciremc.com/HighSpeedInterne···ult.aspx
I am also not sure that I would use the term momentum. The United Power Line Council has maintained a map of BPL locations. Here is the 2006 map:
»www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/1···ide1.jpg
Here is the 2007 map:
»uplc.utc.org/file_depot/0-100000···Map+2007.
It looks like there are a lot fewer dots to me...
There have been a number of BPL successes, but major utilities have tried it and walked away. PPL in Allentown, PA had deployed a system past 5,000 homes or so, and shut 99% of it down, leaving only a small leg in Bethlehem, PA to honor contracts it has with some businesses. (The UPLC map call this a "commercial deployment.") IDACORP announced that it was abandoning BPL, and that its foray into trying it cost their stockholders about $10M.
That is, of course, contrasted with major deployments like Current Technologies and TXU in Dallas, planned for 2M homes.
As to the term "momentum," according to the latest FCC report on broadband use, there are now about 5200 BPL lines in the US. Compared to the other technologies, BPL enjoys about 0.008% of the market, not exactly a share I would term as "momentum" in any sense of the word.
Unfortunately, the tendency of its supporters to overstate its capability and viability have hurt its cause more than helped it.
In the long run, I am sure that BPL will have its place, but in the long run, I can't imagine it living up to what some of its proponents think it is.
Ed Hare
Ed Hare
ARRL Laboratory Manager |
