Chip Helps Electric Outlet Go Broadband

[lostnfound]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050929/ap_on_hi_te/broadband_socket

TOKYO - The common electric socket will serve as your home's connection to broadband with a new chip developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. — doing away with all the Ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless network device.

Products are still being developed, but gadgets embedded with the chip from the Japanese manufacturer of Panasonic products can hook up to a broadband network by plugging into the common electrical outlet, company officials said Thursday.

That's because the Osaka-based company has come up with technology to use electric wiring in the home to relay not just electricity but also data.

The technology has been around for some time — including in the United States — but Matsushita's system is unique in that it delivers fast-speed broadband information at up to 170 megabits per second, which is faster than Ethernet.

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QUESTION for technology people: Will this free us from the satellite/cable monopolies (or oligopolies) as high-speed internet providers?

On edit: I don't mind paying for the service, but I'd rather it wasn't one of these huge monopolies like Time-Warner or Sprint. The lobbying they've done to shut down community broadband projects is particularly offensive.

[corporatemedia]

1. CORPORATE MEDIA says...

you will never be free of me.

[Angry Girl]

2. Won't help us get cheap bradband though

One still needs to get a carrier/provider.

And that's under the thumb of the Bushies, who want to obstruct the free flow of information in any way they can.

[lostnfound]

5. But wouldn't the capital required to BECOME a provider decrease a lot?

The cable companies have a monopoly because no one wants to spend the money to run a dual set of cables in a city.

The satellite-phone method is expensive, too, isn't it?

But would there be technical barriers to low-cost ISPs using electric lines? Or would the electric company be the only possible new entrant into the ISP business?

Or am I misunderstanding this article..?

[0rganism]

9. The electric company could route your signal to other ISPs

Which ones they choose to support are, as usual, dependent on who gives them a cut of the take.

As you astutely observed, the obvious entrant to the ISP market would be the electric utilities. In the short term, they would still probably be leasing their WAN lines from the existing telcos, so your long-distance bandwidth wouldn't change much anyway.

[Angry Girl]

10. If it were only about money, yes

But, as you well know, it's not about providing the cheapest technology or anything like that. Because if it were, we wouldn't have people without food or health care.

[Redstone]

3. This isn't news. I could show you half a dozen places

where you can buy these. They've been around for at least a year.

Redstone

[tainowarrior]

4. speed of light...

My cox cable is 5-6mps...

I get download speeds of 350kiloBYTES a second. Imagine a 170 MBS...my GOD!

I can't wait until my local electric company gives us service!

[Kolesar]

6. This will bring a lot of electromagnetic interference into your house

It will interfere with radio reception in your house and in your car. The amateur radio community hates this internet-over-power-lines idea.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Shortwave and Amateur Broadcasting Iterference

Da link, boss, da link.

Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio

[formercia]

7. Great for bugging someones house

can't even trust the power outlet any more.

[0rganism]

8. G-bit ethrnt has been around for a while, it's not "faster than ethernet"

Of course, it's faster than two-conductor ethernet, which is probably what they meant to say.

However, there are still a host of other concerns they haven't addressed in this article, such as layer-1 range limitations (how far will their hardware drive the signals) and layer-2 frame security (how do you keep people on the same electrical circuit off your LAN). I'd have to read their specs to say for sure how much of a bonus this is.

Furthermore, their version of a "future home" begs the question, do you really want your home appliances hooked up to the internet? Do you really want to have to think about whether the OS on your washing machine is patched and virus-free? What if you go "off grid", will your appliances still work without connecting to Microsoft the first time you power them up?

> QUESTION for technology people: Will this free us from the
> satellite/cable monopolies (or oligopolies) as high-speed internet
> providers?

To answer your direct question, IT DEPENDS. See, what Matsushita has described is a way to make home electrical lines carry digital data in addition to their standard AC load. Will it work as described past the transformers at the substation? My guess is No, the electrical companies would have to pick off the digital signal as early as possible and re-route it to your ISP, which would give you your WAN access through the usual telco monopolies. However, it would be tempting for the ELECTRIC UTILITIES themselves to start their own ISPs, thus tying users to yet another monopoly. What kind of monopoly it is will depend on your location. You may have a locally-franchised utility company that responds to the public, or your electorate may have pulled a stupid and signed over their public utilities to one of the energy conglomerates like Enron. So, as always, Your Mileage May Vary.

[BiggJawn]

11. Oh, boy....BPL by another name.

"The lobbying they've done to shut down community broadband projects is particularly offensive."

Funny, I don't consider myself a "Huge monopoly"...

What they don't tell you in ANY of these articles is that Broadband over Powerline is LAST MILE technology. It has limited reliable range through the powerlines, so you will STILL need a web of cable or fiber to go out into the neighbourhoods to feed the BPL transceivers.
And if you're going to use Microwave broadband to get the signal out, why mess with the powerlines at all, just bring it into the house over the air.

BPL is snake oil. It's being built up as something it's not, and it was a solution looking for a problem when Mikey Powell at the FCC decided it was just the kind of "New Technology" he wanted his 21st-Century FCC to "Cheerlead".

In every other nation it's been tried in, it's failed. The problem being that you can't put a Medium or high Frequency signal on a transmission system designed for 60 Hz without it acting like an antenna. In Europe, the interference was so bad that not only radio hobbyists, but the military was bitching about it.

Why do they keep trying to push it through in this country?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Canuckistanian]

12. Don't expect to see broadband at every plug...

This transmission medium is buggy, causes interference to other radio transmissions and doesn't go very far.

And I can imagine several situations where it won't work at all.