What happened ESB?

Balfa

Weren't ESB looking into providing broadband over the power grid? What happened to that? Are there any practical applications of the technology in other countries?

It's clear that eircom control the phonelines and are doing their best to slow anything that might lose them money. the only thing that'll speed them up is competition from something that can bypass the phonelines.

NTL is clearly out of the question, and wireless connections are taking a while to get up and running... I'm not sure if ESB has been privatised? Certainly if they haven't been, the govt should force them to provide broadband as quickly as possible over the power grid, if it's at all feasible.

JohnK

Its being looked into in the US, Power lines promising for Internet expansion

Singapore seems to think its too expensive

Also a quote from the above: So far, Hongkong is the only territory in Asia to have launched such a technology commercially, although South Korea is also trying it out.

iwb

The technology has come a long way and depending on who you talk to, it is very inexpensive to implement. It is also omnipresent once the head end equipment is installed south of the 38KV transformer to a neighbourhood. Anywhere you have a power outlet, the feed is available.
There are still problems however and one of the biggest seems to be the possibility of the higher frequency signal radiating past the power grid.
ESB seem to be interested in trials of this technology sometime this year or early 2004 so I wouldn't hold my breath on it.
Also, fiber is still needed in a backbone down to the neighbourhood level as the bandwidth available on higher voltage electricity grids wouldn't be high enough.

pepsiman

There's also this thread from a while back on trials on broadband over power lines in Scotland.

Gyck

I have an uncle involved in this project. The last time I talked to him about it was way back in the middle of last year, they were going full steam ahead with the rollout of the backbone. I think the general idea was to interest larger companies in the service, so I guess it would be years before it filtered down for domestic use.

iwb

The backbone is a different deal altogether. The ESB is fully operational on the southern loop of the backbone right now. The northern loop is a year or so away.
You are probably right that it may be years before the bandwidth from this network will trickle down to the residential user but hope springs eternal.
I would think that the very existance of the network might shake the telcos up though. Aswell as bandwidth, I think ESB has dark fiber for sale on the loops. This will make it easier for new entrants to the market to deploy. It might also make the duopoly think again about their policy of not selling dark fiber.

ednwireland

the esb was setup to be a carriers carrier ir they sell large backbone bandwidth to other isps etc there was never a plan to ebter the market directly to the end user as a supplier - the last map i saw was in the western development commision report on telecommunications which gives you an idea of wht it provides (an alternative to eircom and esat backbone networks)

crawler

Yep - Couple of people playing the dark fibre game - Aurora are another one using the new Gas pipline for laying fibre..... http://www.auroratelecom.ie/ - to be honest , no new entrant will be able to buy buckets of dark fibre - managed bandwidth is the order of the day me thinks.

Gyck

Managed? That'll be the day!!

spongebob

See

matthiku

RWE, one of the biggest Energy companies in Germany, provided Internet via power socket. But they ceased their powerline project and stopped providing their products in September 2002: RWE powerline project

RWE ends Powerline project

Essen based energy group RWE AG has abandoned plans to offer fast Internet access via its electricity grid. The Powerline project, which the company had launched in 1999 accompanied by considerable marketing expense, attracted markedly fewer customers than expected

http://www.chemicalnewsflash.de/en/news/100902/


e-on, another big power provider, also stopped their tests due to too many problems with other appliances in the household: for instance a vaccum cleaner can significantly disturb the transmission of data.