Frank Dresser wrote:


"Telamon" wrote in message
...
Drudge has a link to this but i did not see Texas mentioned in it.



Drudge now has a link to this story in the Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printsto...h/news/3259278

The news article puts alot of emphasis on the usefulness of BPL for such
utility operations as power switching and meter reading:

"But where we really think it will work well is in such areas as remotely
reading gas and electric meters and remotely turning on and off power
service for customers in the competitive retail electric markets," Standish
said.

The reporter doesn't mention the widespread failures of BPL, but he doesn't
seem to have bought into the usual self-serving BPL hype either:

"High-speed Internet access is available to more than 95 percent of
Americans, according to a recent study by the Federal Communications
Commission. That means companies providing the service through a new medium,
like power lines, have their work cut out for them when it comes to landing
new customers, says Ron Cowles, an analyst with technology research firm
Gartner."


I don't know what's happening with BPL in this latest incarnation. BPL
hasn't had many successes in real world trials. I suppose it's possible the
BPL proponents are scaling back their promises and are talking up it's
usefulness for remote data reading and control.

I believe that the original idea was to provide internet to areas not
serviced by phone and cable lines. The thing is, most of the western
world is serviced by phone, cable, cell phone, or satellite (the
internet can be had via satellite) so there really is no need for BPL.
And the areas that aren't (Africa, Middle East, poorer parts of Asia)
have people too poor to afford computers, although there has been some
success with aid agencies giving a village chieftain a PC and a
satellite dish so his people can access the internet. So BPL simply has
no place except for power grid management, and it's not too successful
there either.


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