Broadband Over Power Lines Gains Steam

23 Aug, 2004 at 9:32pm ET Article published in Tech

In Manassas, Virginia, residents and businesses have a third option for broadband Internet access, and it comes at a lower price and without the installation fee and long-term commitment of DSL and cable. What’s more, it’s delivered over electrical wires, meaning everyone soon will have access to high-speed Internet without availability limitations that plague other technologies.

“We’ve got a couple hundred users today that are using the BPL [broadband over power line] service, and we’ve got about 1200 on a waiting list,” says John Hewa, assistant director, electric utility, for the city. “We think around the end of the year or the beginning of 2005, we’ll have the service available anywhere in the city.” In January, Manassas, a city of about 36,000 people, turned an 18-month field trial into a commercial offering. It’s one of four utilities–including Cynergy in Cincinnati, Pennsylvania Power & Light, and Central Virginia Coop–that have rolled out commercial BPL this year.

Source: PC World

Comments

24 Aug 2004 ~ 12:01am Nosferatu I can't wait, IIRC it's the same speed up/down for an awesome price.
24 Aug 2004 ~ 4:46am Tim I'm curious about the security implications with such a connection. You have control with normal broadband as in you can unplug the line and still use your computer. What's it going to be like with a connection that works just when you plug your computer into the electrical outlet?
24 Aug 2004 ~ 4:52am EyesOnly Good question tim. If it becomes more comon i guess we'll know.
24 Aug 2004 ~ 4:57am Necropolis Tim,

I think the broadband is sent over the power line and you have a broadband connection point on your plug socket. Then it just runs like a normal broadband connection.
24 Aug 2004 ~ 8:34am Cyclonite

Necropolis_UK wrote:

Tim,

I think the broadband is sent over the power line and you have a broadband connection point on your plug socket. Then it just runs like a normal broadband connection.

That's what I would suspect. There would be nothing to interpret the traffic if it were coming through your PSU.
24 Aug 2004 ~ 12:50pm entropy Yeah, it'd be just like those home electical outlet networking setups, where you'd have to have an adapter in between I think.
24 Aug 2004 ~ 2:30pm RWB

Cyclonite wrote:

That's what I would suspect. There would be nothing to interpret the traffic if it were coming through your PSU.

Ditto.

Though, I am curious if a surge protector would ruin this whole thing, I suppose it would have to be directly plugged into the wall outlet.
24 Aug 2004 ~ 10:16pm muddocktor I can't wait for widespread adoption of this myself. It's my best chance of getting ground based broadband to my house, since both Cox cable and Bellsouth are sitting on their asses about running broadband to me.
25 Aug 2004 ~ 1:24pm Dana This would be fantastic. I am on dial-up with 56K Rockwell, and can only connect at 26,400. That's the best I've ever got.
26 Aug 2004 ~ 4:05pm Komete I tried out BPL at a house in Maryland where Current piloted the service. Once a power company installs BPL equipment on electrical boxes or poles, customers simply plug their power-line modem into any electrical outlet (Current provides the first modem for free). The modem connects to your PC via USB, ethernet, or sometimes Wi-Fi. In the controlled environment of the pilot site, the BPL connection was fast, but real-world performance may vary.
Link
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116357,00.asp