Carl R. Stevenson wrote:
"N2EY" wrote in message
...

Then there's the fact that the HF losses on power lines are so high that

BPL

systems need a repeater every few thousand feet. In rural areas that may

mean a

repeater for each customer, or more. Plus couplers and other hardware for
*each* customer.


The slides I've seen presented by BPL marketing fluff folks show repeaters
every
300 meters ... that's a hell of a lot of repeaters to "serve rural America"
... yet they
claimed in the same presentation that it was "low cost because no
infrastructure was
required because the wires were already (presumably) there."

I pointed to their block diagrams with fiber to the area, "head-ends" to go
from fiber
to the MV/HV lines, repeaters every 300 meters, couplers, etc. and asked
"How can
you claim with a straight face that this "doesn't require the installation
of infrastructure?""


Good work!

Right there is the evidence that the proponents are being less than
accurate in their portrayal of BPL.

Since BPL is slower than some other broadband services, and the
infrastructure appears to be similar to running fiber, is the slowing
attributed to the "existing infrastructure" part of the line?

I'm ignorant of the finer details of BPL, so I may be way off here.

Seems like if they have to run fiber, and do all the repeaters, etc.
why not just........ run fiber and put the signals into the houses as
they should be?

Any good sources of the nitty-gritty of BPL technology?

- Mike KB3EIA -