pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| Gas Companies Smart to Avoid This Natural Gas providers already make a pretty penny selling a product using older infrastructure. They enjoy a natural monopoly and steady stream of revenue. Upgrading their infrastructure to provide broadband service not only requires a significant upfront cost in terms of investment, but there is no guarantee that it will actually succeed.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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aztecnology
O Rly?
Premium
join:2003-02-12
Murrieta, CA | Re: Gas Companies Smart to Avoid This Sounds like another pipe dream... | |
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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Re: Gas Companies Smart to Avoid This Sounds like....
B-roadband
O-ver
G-as
U-tility
S-ervice
...and you thought the Dell laptop batteries were a problem? Wait until the people who can't hook up their WiFi hotspot start trying to fiddle with the gas lines....
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
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Skeebo7
join:2004-11-09
Duluth, GA
| Hmmm... (insert dreamy music and wavy/fuzzy video effects)
"Honey, could you PLEASE hurry up with cooking dinner and get the kids to stop running the bath.... I've got to get online and you guys are hogging bandwidth"
As for the technology itself... is there anything about the properties of methane that are conductive? How about methane plus an additive? | |
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BIGMIKE
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Westminster, CA | ya right LOL! Broadband over Plastic Gas Line, I like to see them try to get that to work.
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Type "miserable failure" in Google | |
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printscreen
join:2003-11-01
Juana Diaz, PR | Re: Gas Companies Smart to Avoid This I did not read the source story but what I had in mind was running a fiber cable through existing gas pipes, not transmitting an actual signal through the space inside the pipe as people seem to think here. Did I miss something? | |
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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Re: Gas Companies Smart to Avoid This Uh, yes, you did.
The BiG (or BOGUS) proposals to date don't include fiber. While fiber in the gas pipe might make some sense in more urban environments to get to the building, in more rural or suburban environments it's hard to see the savings vs. burying fiber. Additionally, it would need to be bypassed around valves, meters, etc., which would be quite expensive.
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
1 edit | (oops--duplicate post deleted.) | |
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HDN
@cox.net
| Not all gas piping is plastic. It can be steel pipe, cast iron pipe, corrugated stainless steel tubing, aluminum alloy, copper or brass or plastic (typically thermosplastic). Although it's not the pipe material that matters with this BiG, it's the full spectrum of a radio wave in a closed system for the purpose of data transfer. I'm a plumber/pipefitter, not an EE, but my best friend is and he seems to think you can tune the wave to the piping, wave guiding it I see it called here. I hope it's true, though I doubt it. | |
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