"KD6MSI" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Dave" wrote:

snip

it won't be any worse than the hits that modems already take from phone
lines, or that cable modems get from their systems, or that computers
without surge protectors get hit with now... it may even be better as
they
are likely designed with that in mind anyway. the one that will be more
fun
will be to watch the bpl tech try to diagnose a problem in the
neighborhood
when a m/m contest station fires up at 0000z on friday night and shuts
down
the whole area.



I think simple economics will be the death of BPL. Cable Broadband, and
DSL are getting cheaper and cheaper, and for the first time DSL is
actually cheaper in some markets than Cable broadband. Broadband can now
be had for what a dialup line cost just a few years ago. The newest
contender, and the one I think is going to kill BPL in the long run, is
satellite internet. The price is a bit high right now, but no more so
than DSL was a short time ago. I predict that it will be coming down
fast, and satellite internet will be *the* provider of the future
because it can be had as a package with digital satellite television,
and provides service to *anywhere* in north America with a clear view of
the southern sky. No miles to source limits, no load balancing, no
landlines, no muss, no fuss. I just don't believe BPL can catch up with
the economics of its competitors who have been at it alot longer.

satellite may be ok for the REALLY remote place that wants to surf the web
and download email, but it has serious drawbacks for anything more than
that. the delays up and down are so long that real time games are
worthless. the split ip system messes up some business vpn uses. the
uplink bandwidth from the user is SLOW (read 56k or less in most cases).
the downlink bandwidth is limited and in the one i looked at they reserved
the right to throttle you back if you were using too much... remember, the
downlink is shared just like cable broadband, so one hog slows it down for
everyone else. they also did not like streaming video and prohibit servers.
and it is not a do-it-yourself installation, it must be installed by trained
techs. fiber to the curb, cable broadband, and improved dsl with extended
range is more likely to be the common mechanism... some of the terrestrial
wireless systems are also making inroads in medium density areas.