rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| reply to Italia3
Re: Interesting.....
said by Italia3  :Probably b/c consumers does not consider this a wave of the future due to lack of speed. Or perhaps it is not widely advertised. It is a new concept to me. You just don't hear much of BPL. It makes sense since the powerlines are already installed. It is making more use out of something that already exists.  It may make sense since the powerlines are already installed, but the powerline itself is a small portion of what is needed. You need feedpoint equipment to feed the signal into the lines, repeaters to regenerate the signal, and way to get the traffic back to the Internet such as fiber or telco facilities. BPL has more severe distance limitations than cable and dsl. While the thought of power lines everywhere would make one think BPL could be everywhere, it isn't like having a real broadband medium like fiber, coax, or twisted pair.
You don't hear much of BPL because the most press it gets is when an equipment manufacturer makes a press release. When news comes out, like the recent San Diego BPL system, it's usually a small trial and not a commercial rollout. Ironically the interference issues with BPL have created alot of press.
BPL has been in testing and development as long as cable and dsl have been in production. But the physical medium BPL uses has more limitations that both cable and dsl. If it weren't for the ubiquity of power lines, BPL would have been written off years ago, but as I mention above the prevalence of power lines gives BPL a perceived advantage that is false and misleading. |
