RSSIBM takes another stab at dying powerline market
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published November 14, 2008, 3:49 PM
IBM this week made yet another play in broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, signing a deal for a system targeted to rural areas in the eastern US. But meanwhile, the overall powerline market seems to be fading away.
In a move to bring broadband services to consumers in rural America, IBM this week inked a $9.6 million agreement to install broadband over powerline (BPL) technology at electric cooperatives throughout the eastern part of the US. Meanwhile, many consumers, even in rural areas, have already turned to other broadband technologies.
IBM has pushed for similar systems in the past, helping to establish a powerline network in the city of Houston, Texas in 2005, for example.
Praised by advocates for its affordability, BPL technology uses a combination of large utility power lines and standard electrical writing in and around the house.
But despite a flurry of renewed activity over the past year or so, BPL looks like a technology which might have missed the mark just about entirely in terms of timing.
At CES 2008, for example, members of the HomePlug Power Alliance and HomePlugAV camps of the powerline industry each talked up their wares, as did European-based Digital on Silicon (DS2), which sells powerline home networking chips into the US market through equipment from Netgear.
Five months later, however, a long touted BPL trial in Dallas being run by DirecTV and Current Communications was sold to the local utility, which then started using its infrastructure for smart-electrical grid monitoring instead of the originally planned broadband access for consumers.
Powerline technology is still plagued by electrical interference issues. Moreover, depending on where consumers live, a lot of them have already adopted options such as cable, satellite, and 3G wireless technologies like EV-DO. Meanwhile, Verizon's FiOS and AT&T's U-verse are increasing their penetration, and 4G WiMAX is on the way.
"I don't think BPL will every come anywhere near the speeds offered by FiOS or cable," predicted Chris Roden, an analyst at Parks Associates, during an earlier interview with BetaNews.
We here in Nelson County Virginia are trying to participate in a BPL installation by IBEC. One pilot headend is in operation, and gives symmetrical 500+ kbps up and down. For those of us in rural VA that's a wonderful improvement. The second site is now in the installation phase, with some resistance from Verizon, and could be up an operating in a few weeks.
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|Foxfyre is right on the money. "The city of Houston" has every conceivable option for internet. The reason this tech hasn't taken off is because NOBODY is making it available to those who actually need it! The only places that BPL makes sense are in areas not served by cable and DSL, both of which are faster and cost roughly the same . That's about 25% of the continental US, by the way. You give me a reliable 128K or better low-latency pipe for under $45/month and I'll eat it with a spoon (and if you offer a higher tier I'll likely jump on it). So will a ton of other people. If I had the capitol to dive into this I'd be doing it yesterday. By my ballpark estimates, even in my rugged, lightly-populated area this service would pay for itself if only a quarter of potential customers signed up. Most "rural" regions will have considerably greater population density and less infrastructure expenses (southeast OH, for example). I'm no fan of IBM, but whoever brings this to the public first will get the dollars.
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|With the ubiqitous presence of electrification, this could be extremely beneficial to the regions where is it not financially practical to extend regular DSL due to distance or low density.
Technologies such as WiMax, with wireless that exhibits larger coverage areas could potentially help in this area, one wonders when or if it will ever get there.
My hats off to them if they can make it work.
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|Why can't they do ADSL?
Mind you I'm presuming you have exchanges within 4km of these houses.
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|Many sites are MUCH further than 4km!
And the densities do not justify the expense and maintenance.
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