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Broadcasters against Power Line broadband

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  • 10-10-2003 2:18pm
    #1
    Fergus
    Registered Users Posts: 532 ✭✭✭


    Internet over Electrical Power lines (PLC / BPL) has ran into some serious objections lately from some really big hitters in the broadcast industry, namely the BBC, the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) and the ITU (International Telecommunications Union).

    The problem is that power lines in the neighborhood act as antennae and transmit radio interference in the 2Mhz - 80Mhz range.

    See BBC report from Scotland trial here and the latest ARRL article here.

    The bottom line is that there is going to be very heavy lobbying worldwide against any legalisation permitting power line internet.


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    #2
    bminish
    Registered Users Posts: 480 ✭✭bminish


    Recently the European Commission had a public consultation on Power line Communications (PLC)

    You may see my response here
    http://tradcentral.com/plcsubmission.pdf
    Links directly to a 143 Kb PDF file

    All of the consultations received by the European commission are available here
    http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/enterprise/tcam/library?l=/emcsstandardisationsmand&vm=detailed&sb=Title

    You will find a diverse range of opposition to PLC on interference and other grounds from a wide range of individuals and organizations.
    You will note that the submissions by PUA (PLC Utilities alliance) and Eurolectric are identical and contain some severe technical errors in relation to the HF noise floor in Urban areas.

    Every single PLC trial worldwide has demonstrated severe interference problems, this is a real, severe and genuine issue for all HF radio users.
    Not one single trial has demonstrated PLC as a rural solution.

    Rural Internet access often gets mentioned in relation to PLC as it suits the PLC lobbyists yet all commercial trials to date have been in urban areas, little wonder since current PLC systems have a line reach of around 300m before needing a repeater.

    PLC signals are usually injected at the local Medium voltage transformer (the one that steps down from 10 or 22 Kv to 220v ) from a fibre optic connection (or other NON PLC backhaul system such as a wireless link.) PLC signals cannot pass though transformers hence the need to inject the signals after the transformer.
    In urban areas 1 transformer serves as many as 50 houses, in rural areas 1 transformer typically serves 1 to 4 houses.

    If one ignores for a moment the other issues with powerline (very short line reach, need for alternative backhaul & interference ) Rural broadband access via PLC is still going to be a long way down the list for the PLC operator since they will be driven by the same commercial interests as any other operator in the broadband market which will lead them to the urban markets.
    PLC operators will find rural markets at least as unattractive to provide service in as other wired broadband providers.

    PLC at best places one more dominant player in the market which will do little to improve the availability of broadband and will cause much pollution to a unique and natural resource, the HF radio spectrum.

    .Brendan


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