Internet over powerlines

[xli_ne]

don't know if this is old news or not but i found this interesting.

link (http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/11/technology/centerpoint_ibm.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes)

[grapes911]

Old news? Sort of. I don't think its been posted here before, but I've heard of this a while ago. I even spoke about it in a research paper I wrote a year ago.

For a very long time now, researchers have known powerlines could be used to carry information. They started researching this way before broadband existed. They ran into some snags and such along they way. Other technologies emerged and powerline internet never really got off the ground. In 2003, a company in Cincinnati was very close in launching a powerline ISP. I don't know if they ever succeeded or not.

[Leareth]

there are a few powerline providers
range is 150feet from power trans-something or another of wireless internet
here in canada BC Hydro is thinking of setting up a similar service...

[mac 2005]

Seem to remember reading several months ago about an Ohio-based power company (http://www.cinergy.com/) that was completing a trial of the technology in one or more of its markets.

[wdlove]

NStar Energy Company ran a line behind my house several years ago. It included fiber-optics. The installation company was mentioning a similar of using it for electric, phone, and internet. It was when they had an alliance with another company that fell through. So the the line was never used.

[MongoTheGeek]

Can you imagine how easy it would be to tap into? You are essentially using a 20 mile antenna at 20kw. The little green men on mars will be watching you surf porn...
:eek:

[ravenvii]

It would be awesome if in the future we could get internet, electricity and phone all through the same lines. That would make moving around stuff in the room so much more flexible and easy.

[ham_man]

I will be watching this very closely. I really want high speed internet, and since I doubt any of the providers would put in lines out here, this would be an awesome alternative.

[aspro]

If I recall correctly, my local power company is going to be trialling this soon, but alot of people are talking about radio interference, if the interference turns out to be negligeable I cant wait, as the DSL service down here is not particularly priced well :)

[homerjward]

art bell did a big show about this 1-2 years ago. scary stuff. apparently the interference from the unshielded power cable carrying all that radiation could kill off the lower tv channels, some am stations, and all of ham radio :eek:

[mduser63]

BPL has some serious interference issues, and amateur radio operators are really fighting it. It sounds good on the surface, but has the potential to cause serious problems for licensed users of the radio spectrum. More information can be found here (http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/).

[AmigoMac]

It would be awesome if in the future we could get internet, electricity and phone all through the same lines. That would make moving around stuff in the room so much more flexible and easy.

100 W radiating through your body because you didn't read the manual to setup your WLAN correctly and somehow you can surf with your microwave :eek: ... ;)

[thedude110]

100 W radiating through your body because you didn't read the manual to setup your WLAN correctly and somehow you can surf with your microwave :eek: ... ;)

As long as I'm not surfing with my microwave via a wireless electrical connection ...

[joecool85]

I think its a great idea, at least in theory. I'm sure there are plenty of bugs in it right now, but, if they work them all out this could end up being an amazing thing. No one thought it would work sending internet through cable lines, heck, a lot of people were skeptical of DSL through the phone lines saying that it was too much for the older lines and would "burn them up." Let's face it, people are afraid of new tech. They'll get over it.