auh2o

Would someone please tell me the speed of this stuff?

I found this

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,57605,00.html

but nowhere do they cite speed and performance.

BTW - The reason I ask is that the TXU deal has part of the ROI tagged as this service.

ScottC

Did you see the date of the article?

Power over utility lines was going to be the next big thing, but it never took off, IMHO simply because speed demands have exploded over the past years. People used to get a 512kbit line to the home, nowadays people want 20 or 30 times that speed, and you can only push so much over powerlines.

The last big trial I heard of was with RWE in Germany, and it didn't last all that long. In the end it's probably quicker and cheaper to just dig fiber.

auh2o

Yep. But I can't find anything really more recent and nothing about speed. If it dose give fiber like speed (30+mbps) I would see why it would take off. But if not why are two really smart companies (KKR and Texas Pacafic Group) banking on that the technology is ready for "Prime Time"?

Makes no sense to me yet. Unless it a smoke screen to where they really think future revenue will come from?

indufan

I kind of thought that power over utility lines took off decades ago. I can't imagine not using it.

sundrop

Its called PLT It works "kinda"


http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Netgea...r_power_lines_

slashd0t

Actually, fibre can carry near 10gbps with no problems at all (yes, that's GBPS).

BLI-Flyer

I think you missed the "Power over utility lines" reference.

derpelikan

if you just want to use it to built a LAN in your house, its up to 300mbit...

i think thats fast enough.

dp

http://www.testticker.de/ipro/tests/...060313004.aspx

Craig6z

Another problem that stalled acceptance of internet via power lines was "noise" to consumer and commercial communications devices. The unshielded wires that power companies use for distribution caused a lot of problems in tests. Commercial broadcasters, the FAA, and consumer electronics manufacturers all had problems keeping spurious interference out of equipment.

Ultimately this distribution system imploded because the power companies finally recognized the infrastructure costs exceeded expectations, they would eventually have to address the "noise" problem, and that demand for broadband was being met by other utilities (cable, DSL, Starbucks ).

ScottC

One other major problem the utilities don't mention is breakage of lines; one ice storm and 1000's of customers are without power AND internet. At least fiber is safe and buried in the ground.

I think some of the european utilities have found that wrapping fiber around their utility lines was a fairly cheap way of pulling lines, but somehow I just don't see it taking off.

Utility towers are vulnerable to the elements, need a lot of maintanence and any kind of work on them requires livewire work or shutting down part of a grid.

BLI-Flyer

In my community, the local public power company has run fiber to all the houses and provides Internet and phone, and soon will provide TV service. The fiber is run along the utility poles and is subject to the same issues as the power lines when there are ice storms, high winds, or vehicles that take out poles. I'll still take their service over Charter Cable any day, it's faster, more reliable, and less expensive.

redburgundy

I've never seen a FlyerTalk thread with so much misinformation.

ScottC

Well, be a big boy and provide what you think is the correct information. Just saying something is wrong and posting a won't help anyone.

Savage25

The Holiday Inn Colombo had this when I was there last year. I thought the speed was quite good...comparable to a 512K DSL line.

DallasBill

I can only speak to the TXU and Current Communications deal here in Texas. It's not going nearly as fast as they proposed back in Dec/05. They ran into rights-of-way issues with cities. They were sued by AT&T last fall (now settled) for compromising their lines (RF interference) when adding the Current boxes to the power lines running on the same poles.

TXU invested a tidy sum into Current and in return Current gets 10 yrs of biz from TXU. They quickly figured out that the Intenet alone was not going to make them any money anytime soon.

So, they re-grouped in the last year and changed the approach. Current's system will also enable TXU to instantly detect service outages and, eventually, to monitor customers' electricity usage without having to read meters at each customer's home. It can also remotely turn the power off and on to homes or entire neighborhoods. They are installing these meters in central and near-east Dallas homes right now.

The revised pitch is the ability to read meters and monitor usage by the minute. Thus, they free up labor costs because nobody has to read the thing monthly anymore. The Current software will also monitor the Internet connections. Eventually, the money hook is to sell the technology to other electrical utilities and make major bucks from the licensing. And TXU and others could then market peak and non-peak rates tied to specific low/high demand periods of the day. And TXU can do this because electricity is deregulated in Texas, although that may change due to the consumer-rate raping they have been doing for the past 18 months.