On 11 Oct 2007 00:45:11 GMT, Steveo wrote:

wrote:
| On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:50:47 -0700, John Smith
| wrote:
|
| |Yo Mamma wrote:
| |
| | ...
| | BPL would work great, if the electric utility industry didn't seem to
| | think maintenance was an option. As it stands now, most transmission
| | and distribution providers are starving the maintenance departments to
| | provide higher returns for the stockholders. Fine and dandy if you are
| | waiting on a storm to come to you and provide write-offs to rebuild
| | your infrastructure. Not so good if you want to provide good internet
| | service. BPL is not a viable option on a large scale...with the state
| | of the industry now.
| |
| |Your crystal ball seems broken ...
| |
| |http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/sho...leID=202400285
| |
| |JS
| |
| |------------------
|
| Just because there is a standard does not mean it will be a major
| player in the broadband business. ALl I gleen from this article is
| that there are now two competing proposals for a standard.
|
| Still BPL has major hurdles to overcome in that telcos like Verizon,
| as well as cable providers, are converting their distribution lines
| from copper to fiber. Fiber offers superior advantages over copper and
| even power lines for transmission of broadband data.
|
| The major advantage of BPL is that nearly 100% of homes in the US are
| already penetrated with power lines. Cable is at about 75% level and
| telcos are at about 95% level. That is what they are banking on that
| the power lines are already to the house. No added infrastructure in
| transmission lines has to be deployed. Only equiptment that is a
| rather significant cost factor in rolling out BPL.
|
| For me I would take fiber any day over BPL.
|
| james
|
|Wasn't initially proposed as a broadband option for rural homes, homes
|without cable access? It seems like more than just that now.
|
|----------------

Yes BPL was invisioned to provide broadband service to rural areas
where cable would never be able to do so. As Verizon and cable
companies roll out fiber across the nation, BPL will become less
attractive. Overall usable bandwidth of fiber can realistically exceed
that of BPL. In the long term fiber will be cheaper infrastructure
than BPL could ever be and more reliable, especially in high wind
areas.

BPL does have its merrits but for long term viability, I do not see it
here in the US. May be in emerging countries were the power line
infrastructure is in place and the cost of fiber and/or telco copper
wire infrastructure is not feasable. One such would be China. China
has found that it is cheaper and more efficient to put in wireless
phones systems than standard telco to rural areas. There power lines
far exceed telco lines for broadband connections.

james