Despite a significant lack of actual deployment...
As we often note, broadband over powerline (BPL) remains a technology stuck in neutral, despite a decade of bubbly optimism fueled by BPL hardware vendors and optimistic analysts whose predictions never seem to materialize.
A few months back, citing data from Parks Associates, Computer World
informed readers that
"broadband over powerline is ready to explode" and that there would be some 2.5 million BPL users by 2011. Today, they're
citing data from Newton-Evans which predicts even more impressive growth:
The number of worldwide electricity consumers covered by BPL deployments (note, not actually served - Ed.) is expected to grow from 1.3 million in 2006 to 69.5 million in 2010. -- The number of BPL subscribers worldwide will grow from 215,500 in 2006 to 7.2 million in 2010.
Meanwhile, another report this week from
Research & Markets insists that BPL will generate
"$4.95 billion in access revenue in 2013." Many trials aren't expanding,
interference problems persist and the
most recent FCC data (assuming it's accurate) says BPL is barely a blip on the broadband radar.
The most significant BPL news in the past year was that DirecTV was
planning to test the technology on a limited basis, and that was before they
signed their partnership deal with WiMax provider Clearwire.
The American Radio Relay League's Ed Hare recently
stopped by our forums to give the latest on his organization's effort to eradicate (or at least manage) the interference caused by the technology. Even then, it's not clear that many utilities even
want to get into the broadband business.
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Why does this all sound familiar?