"John Smith" wrote in message
news
Jim:

Here is what I think:

1) NO standards have been established.
2) BPL is in a testing phase, we will NOT know anything until this is
completed by independent testing laboratories--NOT HAMS--NOT THOSE
HOLDING THE LICENSES, PATENTS, MANUFACTURING RIGHTS, ETC, ETC....
3) Amateurs are over-reacting BEFORE data has been had.
4) All will be decided on its merits.
5) Amateur hobbyists may have to tolerate some interference for the
benefit of tens or hundreds of millions.
6) I think they would be idiots to tell us exactly what they were working
on and details of the methods, freqs and hardware... if they do, why not
just give the technology away?


BPL will benefit no one. In the markets large enough for it to have a
chance of flying, consumers already have a choice among several competing
technologies (phone, DSL, cable, WI-FI, and satellite), some of which are
better than BPL.

To compete, it will have to be as cheap as phone and as fast as cable.
Won't happen. To cover operating costs, it will cost in the same range per
month as DSL or cable with NO advantages and several disadvantages to the
actual users.

See it isn't just throwing the signal on the power line and then having a
special modem at the consumer end. Substantial investments in hardware are
required. There has to be a signal booster every mile or so OR the signal
has to run via cable almost up to the consumer and then be shifted to the
power line. In addition, every transformer has to have a bypass installed
for the broadband signal.

While we need to keep alert to the problem potential in BPL, I'm not too
excited about it as there are independent industry analysts showing that it
will be a loser due to financial considerations even if the system is mature
and fully "loaded" to achieve the lowest possible price.

Besides the speed at which Dad will drop BPL when Junior interferes with his
ballgame on TV or radio would make your head spin.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE