BPL Pulling Out of Houston!

[n0jaa]

CenterPoint Energy in Houston says they are ending their BPL trial, citing interference to HF communications as one reason. #They state they are still evaluating the technology.

You can access the news article from the Houston Chronicle at the link below...

CenterPoint Pulls Back on Broadband Testing (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3613035.html)



Paul, N0JAA.

[KD4LEI]

Hmmm... Interesting indeed! Good news and I also suspect they see the writing on the wall with the wireless internet boom coming into view. They won't be able to compete. IMHO

[WA5KRP]

Austin has backed out before it started. Houston has sent it packing. Wazzup in the DFW area?


WA5KRP
Texas

[K0RGR]

It's good to see this decision. It's too early to tell what's going to happen here, but it looks like it may have died here, too. The local power company has ended their relationship with both the prospective BPL vendors they were studying. I don't know what the status of our trial users is - they may still be there, but I haven't been around that area with an HF receiver for quite a while, so I don't know for sure.

[wa9cwx]

This is sounding VERY promising.

Please someone, tell me this is the continuing trend.

I know so little of the status of BPL, even in my neck of the woods, but I have HEARD the horror tapes, and I SURE don't want to try and pick out an S 1 signal through THAT......Especially if it is 20 over S9 like I heard on the demo. #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[n0ov]

BPL is a great idea if they can lick the interference problem.

I'd say Houston made the right call.

[kb2vxa]

Haowdee y'all,

We don' nee' no steenkeen' BPL! Verizon is making inroads in NJ with fiber optics into the home providing TV, high speed Internet and of course telephone service, the wave of the future. Of course Comcast Cable is pushing ads to have the input votes needed to pass legislation run against it. Sooner or later cable will be obsolete, you can't stop progress. So, where does that leave BPL?

YEEHAAAA!

[ae6yd]

From what I've heard DFW is a different type of BPL system, a Motorola/Canopy venture that uses proprietary licensed wireless as a backhaul, and only uses BPL for the "drop" to the house. They worked closely with ARRL, and even set up a test system around W1AW. So, while I think it's kind of pointless to have the BPL part and not go full-wireless, the interference problems are minimal.

Good news for Houston! 'Grats, guys.

[ka5s]

Quote[/b] (n0jaa @ Feb. 03 2006,12:13)]CenterPoint Energy in Houston says they are ending their BPL trial, citing interference to HF communications as one reason. They state they are still evaluating the technology.

You can access the news article from the Houston Chronicle at the link below...

CenterPoint Pulls Back on Broadband Testing (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3613035.html)



Paul, N0JAA.
Another and possibly better link there is
http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2006/01/centerpoint_no.html

The one Amateur Radio comment (Posted by: clearout at January 25, 2006 04:05 PM) on that Blog just blows CenterPoint's partisans away. Right out of the water.


Cortland
KA5S

[KE7CWB]

Looks like the new wireless internet technologies coming out will make BPL obselete before it even gets off the ground.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[KI4NGN]

Quote[/b] (KE7DLG @ Feb. 03 2006,17:59)]Quote[/b] (kb2vxa @ Feb. 03 2006,10:38)]Sooner or later cable will be obsolete, you can't stop progress.
Cable has been obsolete for years. I figure the writing on the walls was when the local cable company started changing hands faster than the new flyers could be printed.
Cable is obsolete, or will be because of telephone companies or wireless internet?

I live in Raleigh, NC, and I have Time Warner cable. I am certainly not unique in that I have always hated the cable company.

And yet I find myself with digital cable service, broadband internet access, and they are now offering full telephone service for less cost than BellSouth. I know that it is VoIP and may not yet be mature, but it still less expensive than the regular telephone company service.

My home was new when I purchased it in 1998. The phone lines are fiber right up to my property. Despite that it took them years to make DSL available to me (because DSL is basically a copper-wire technology). No thank you. DSL at its best doesn't touch broadband cable access to the internet. My internet connection consistently measures T1 and T2 speeds.

I have movies on demand. Not pay per view, which is paying to watch movies according to their schedule, but selecting movies and watching them from beginning to end when I want to.

I was a DirecTV customer from day one in our home, but dropped it in favor of digital cable last summer. Satellite will never offer, at least not for many years, view on demand or T1-T2 internet speeds.

The offerings of telephone and cable companies are starting to mesh, and it is the telephone companies who are playing catch up.

Mike, Raleigh, NC

[KD4LEI]

Quote[/b] (KI4NGN @ Feb. 03 2006,23:56)]Quote[/b] (KE7DLG @ Feb. 03 2006,17:59)]Quote[/b] (kb2vxa @ Feb. 03 2006,10:38)]Sooner or later cable will be obsolete, you can't stop progress.
Cable has been obsolete for years. I figure the writing on the walls was when the local cable company started changing hands faster than the new flyers could be printed.
Cable is obsolete, or will be because of telephone companies or wireless internet?

I live in Raleigh, NC, and I have Time Warner cable. I am certainly not unique in that I have always hated the cable company.

And yet I find myself with digital cable service, broadband internet access, and they are now offering full telephone service for less cost than BellSouth. I know that it is VoIP and may not yet be mature, but it still less expensive than the regular telephone company service.

The offerings of telephone and cable companies are starting to mesh, and it is the telephone companies who are playing catch up.

Mike, Raleigh, NC
Cox is wayyyy ahead of TWC as far as digital cable and digital phone service. Have had the digital phone service since Jan '02. Not much different in how digital phone vs analog works. At least not noticeably anyway. Just cheaper for service.

[KI4NGN]

TWC has been offering digital phone for a year or so. They have had digital digital cable for a several years now. I've been using RoadRunner (broadband internet access) for 3 years and it was around for a year or two before I started with it. So I don't know that TWC is 'wayy' behind Cox. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

The way that telephone works, all voice comms are digitized. The difference between the telephone services and cable services is that the telephone services use a dedicated network and the cable services use the internet. The audio quality of the cable services is supposed to be comparable to the telepone network, but reviewers of the cables services have noted more frequent audio problems with cable than with telephone, which all attribute to use of the internet. The other down side to digital phone over the internet is reliability. The telephone network has always had its own power, and most know that even when you lose power in your home you (normally) do still have telephone service. You lose your telephone with digital cable if you lose power. Even the cable company recommends that you keep a basic land line service for just that reason.

[ka5s]

Quote[/b] (KI4NGN @ Feb. 04 2006,05:56)]I find myself with digital cable service, broadband internet access, and they are now offering full telephone service for less cost than BellSouth. I know that it is VoIP and may not yet be mature, but it still less expensive than the regular
Let's "paper-napkin" these technologies. Using dialup as a base, if you can get 56Kb out of a 4 KHz dialup line, then using the same OFDM technology (but at RF, of course) you can get 7.7Gb out of a 550 MHz coax. More cable systems are at 750 MHz (10.5 Gb) and some are at 870 MHz (>12.1 Gb). How much each application or subscriber can get is going to be determined by how many applications and subscribers there are. However, Scientific Atlanta (http://www.scientificatlanta.com/products/customers/images_bbaccess/1204_Fac_Sheet_3.pdf) says each TV channel takes 3.75MB using 64QAM (1.5 Mb in MPEG-4).

Carrier current Access BPL is so far restricted to not more than 12 MHz on any one repeater (for about 2,000 feet). That's almost 177 Mb. If there are 80 subscriber drops per 2000 feet then -- when they're all logged on at once (Super Bowl anyone?) -- they each get about 2.2 Mb. If the Cable company serves 20,000 subscribers with each 10 Gb coax, then each one might get 500Mb when everyone is logged on at once. That's impressive!

If a BPL provider uses technology with 2 MHz per repeater then at max loading each 80 subscribers get 350 Kb -- slower than DSL and not enough for the Super Bowl in MPEG-4.

Not everyone will use max bandwidth all the time and a smart system designer will allocate system capacity as it is requested, not by who logs on first. Consequently, subscribers might get more service than the estimate above. Or less!

Disclaimer: Rule of thumb (a sore thumb) based on dialup. YMMV IMHO et cum spiritus vodka...


Cortland
KA5S

[ae2ny]

Being in ESU here in Sullivan County, NY I give fair warning to those who have Vonage or similar services. Now don't get me wrong, I have Vonage as well because of the $28 a month. However I feel the need to point this out...

Vonage has what they call "Enhanced 911 Location Service" where you have to register your address before 911 dialing will work. But that still doesn't mean you're going to get your local 911 dispatch center.

If the local tower is down or malfunctioning for some reason, your call will be routed to the next closest tower which for me is in NYC over 2 hours away. Your call to 911 is useless at that point, or at the very least delayed by significant amounts of MINUTES, in a situation where SECONDS count towards saving a life.

That's why I have not only Vonage, but a traditional telephone line with nothing on it but 911 service. I pay $11 a month for that service.

Another thing to keep in mind as well is that with the VoIP telephone services, your address information doesn't flash up to the 911 dispatcher. You have to tell them where you live. I witnessed a VoIP call when I was working the dispatch center one night, and her address never came up and she didn't know english, she was russian. It took us 7 minutes to find someone in the building who could speak to her and find out where she lived.

Food for thought.


Anthony - AE2NY