DSL Reports says the FCC green-lighted the controversial broadband via-powerline technology, yesterday. The agency, to the dismay of military, emergency, and ham radio operators, did not reduce the permissible emission interference limits under Part 15 guidelines.
Instead, the FCC will rely on providers applying “adaptive interference mitigation techniques” in regions impacted by interference The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), was less than enthused. “I had hoped the FCC would have shown a greater depth of understanding of the issue,” opines League President Jim Haynie.
BPL’s “unsupported” noise, tracked by the ARRL and others, has often proved to be 10,000 times higher than acceptable levels in some world-wide trials. FCC Commissioner Copps (who was the lone dissenter in yesterday’s VoIP ruling as well) was the only FCC member to voice serious concerns about the technology, arguing the FCC was “dodging” some of the harder questions about the technology. “Is it right to allow electric ratepayers to pay higher bills every month to subsidize an electric company’s foray into broadband?” Copps asked.
FCC chairman Michael Powell said power line distribution of broadband “could simply blow the doors off the provision of broadband.” But before providers can get too excited, there are obstacles to overcome. Reportedly:
“…Transformers are a hard block, but most of the other problems can be handled. Bandwidth over power lines ranges from 1 Mbps to about 15 Mbps depending on the environment, and are forecasted to approach 100 Mbps in a few years. Because powerlines are a shared media, security is always a concern so encryption is required…”
Amperion’s PowerWiFi access, combines the pervasive infrastructure of power lines with readily available 802.11 (WiFi). Products are available for both overhead (Falcon) or underground powerlines (Lynx) and include signal injectors, extractors and repeaters (pdf FAQ). So far Main.net’s Power Line Communications is the only firm to publicly claim the ability to push data through a transformer.
A dozen utilities in the U.S., including Ohio’s American Electric Power and New York’s Consolidated Edison are running small tests of the technology at anywhere from 3 to 250 homes each. Pennsylvania’s PPL and the city of Manassas, Va. hope to launch commercial service this year.
“We’re going to have an absolute stampede to move on this,” said Alan Shark, president of the Power Line Communications Association, which includes Internet providers such as Earthlink as well as utility companies. “It’ll change the way we do business on the Internet.” The Internet Home Alliance hopes to hook up refrigerators.
| Utilities are behind cable and DSL in the race to deliver broadband | |||
| U.S.subs | Homes Passed | Kbps | |
| Cable modem | 10.6 mil | 75 mil | 400-1,000 |
| DSL | 5.1 mil | 50 mil | 500-1,500 |
| Satellite | 247,000 | NA | 150-1,200 |
| Fixed wireless | 45,000 | 500,000 | 128-1,500 |
| Power line | 500* | 2,500 | 200-500 |
The technology now moves on to the next phase, a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), which will include further testing of the technology. After the NPRM, the technology will shift from scattered trials to broad scale adoption and your electrical outlet.
Current Technologies, based in Germantown, Maryland, is testing its electric grid-based Web service in about 70 Maryland homes and 50 in Cincinnati, said President Jay Birnbaum. He said he wants to sell Internet access in the U.S. this autumn for $30 to $60 a month, depending on what speed the user wants.
Tim Higgins has run comprehensive tests on Ethernet over Powerline devices:
- Net Gear’s Wall-Plugged Ethernet Bridge (above, $62), plugs into any electrical outlet and uses your existing electrical wiring to give your entire household access to your Cable/DSL connection.
- Siemens Powerline 802.11b Wireless Access Point, enables wireless LAN extensions without running CAT5 cable. It uses your AC wiring to backbone different 802.11b “hot spots” around the home.
One scenario would be to use only a home’s internal wiring. A “last mile” connection, using an 802.16a device, would plug into AC wiring for distribution around the home. The other scenario would be to have the power company deliver the goods.
Either way, Cable and Phone companies are likely to get some competition. The FCC would like to create an environment where DSL, Cable, Satellite, Broadband Wireless and Powerline could freely compete in an “unregulated” environment.
Whether or not that vision is realistic has been debated for years.
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