Bpl

[KA4DPO]

Does anyone know if the BPL system in Manassas Virginia is still active?

[N2RJ]

If it had been shut down, wouldn't it have been big news on the ARRL website?

So my guess is no, it's still there.

[K8MHZ]

Some old news:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/FCC-To-Nudge-BPL-Deployment-79287

On the agenda for the FCC's Friday meeting is the classification of broadband over powerline (BPL) as a an interstate information service, rather than as a telecommunications service, reports CNET (http://news.com.com/FCC+to+clarify+rules+for+powerline+broadband/2100-1034_3-6131274.html?tag=nefd.top). What's the difference? An information service (which both cable & DSL now are) is less heavily regulated, which the FCC hopes will mean faster BPL deployment. The FCC's optimism about the technology has remained largely unbridled (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/76998), despite continued interference concerns and skepticism among utilities and engineers over whether getting into the residential bandwidth business will be worth the trouble.I don't see anything newer than 2006 via an Internet search. But this little tidbit may explain the FCC's reluctance to enforce interference issues.

[W1RFI]

The system in Manassas is still active, although the locals report that the number of residents using the service seems to rather low. The interference levels from the system are related to the actual useage and the partial fixes that the system operator has done to address interference.

Some of the other systems are doing better with interference. Just as a couple of examples, the Ambient test system in Little Rock was operating with effective notches in all of the ham bands, without interference, and the larger HomePlug-based Current Technologies deployment in Dallas is not causing widespread interference problems to Amateur Radio. (Shortwave BC is impacted in either system, but even hams are not filing SWL complaints.)

Unfortunately, although the industry is making individual progress in some cases, the FCC rules and developing industry standards do not reflect the more successful models. Until there are good rules in place, new companies entering this market will have poor guidance on how to avoid interference, and each new spate of companies will repeat in part the mistakes of their predecessors.

Ed, W1RFI

[w3wn]

Ed, has anyone ever figured out (even unofficially) exactly why the FCC has been pushing BPL so heavily over the last few years?

Is it purely a political payoff? Is there some technological advancement that we're just not seeing (which I doubt, but you never know)? Is it just someone being stubborn and insisting that theirs is the only way?

And whatever happened to all those early claims that BPL was going to bring broadband to the rural masses? Have they finally dropped those once and for all, or do they still trot them out?

73

[WW3QB]

Lots's of BPL news at http://www.dslreports.com/blog?cat=40

[KD6NIG]

The only reason I could see the FCC trotting it out is either:

1) The power companies wanted a piece of the internet buck or

2) Since 99.9% of people in America have a connection to a power line in order to survive, they saw it as a way of getting internet to the masses, not realizing the entire wiring system for the most part would have to be retrofitted to make it possible.

Had the system been able to provide it without modification to existing pole structure, it would have taken off like wildfire. But since about the only thing eliminated is the running of actual wire from pole to pole, it hasn't.

Either that or the head of the FCC saw it as another way to get at the Cable companies, which some people alledge the current head of the FCC tries to do at every turn. Well, one week. The next week they claim hes anti-telco. Either one would fit in the promotion of BPL, I suppose.

I think the power companies saw a cash cow, got it approved, then found out it was more costly than it was worth, created much more work for them to maintain it, and they also figured out to compete they would have to get the speed up and the price down. Its hard to keep costs down when you're outfitting poles with new equipment.

I think most power companies have realized that sticking to power providing is profitable and the best thing, instead of trying to complicate things.