Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Power lines set to carry high-speed Internet

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 06:42:50 -0400

The Christian Science Monitor,

Work & Money
from the April 26, 2004 edition

Power lines set to carry high-speed Internet

By Brad Rosenberg | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor Power
lines bring energy to homes all across America, but soon they could
carry high-speed Internet service as well. On June 1, federal proposed
rules for Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) go into effect.  At that
point, power companies can sell broadband services over power lines in
every market in the United States.

Several power companies from North Carolina to California have already
launched trial programs in the past year, providing Internet service to
customers through modems plugged into their electrical outlets. The
companies are charging roughly $30 to $40 per month, a bit less than or
equal to high-speed service from telephone and cable companies.

But ham-radio operators are deeply
worried about the technology, arguing
BPL causes enough radio interference to
block out radio frequencies of fire and
police departments, and other emergency
services. "It's like listening to a
symphony next to a jackhammer,"
complains Jim Micholis, a Wayne, Pa.,
ham radio operator who has witnessed
several BPL tests.

Overseas, BPL tests were halted
because of interference, they point out.

A new technical report, due to be
released in a few weeks, will address the
interference issue, insiders say, and offer
evidence for both sides of the debate.

Most electronic devices create radio
disturbance in some way, from
fluorescent lights to cable Internet. But
BPL stands out because it uses
unshielded power lines to carry the
Internet signal, says Jim Haynie,
president of the American Radio Relay
League. "In each and every instance
where we have gone to the test sites and
done our measurements and used our
instruments, we have found that [BPL]
will interfere ... to the point where we
can't hear anything."

The Federal Communications
Commission disputes that contention. It
requested and got feedback from the
radio league, and drafted BPL rules to
meet its complaints.

"Our responsibility is to make sure that
... when some new use of the radio
spectrum occurs, it doesn't create
interference, and we have," says Ed
Thomas, chief engineer for the FCC. Mr.
Thomas maintains that the commission
has yet to find any evidence of BPL
interfering with nearby radios. "I'm willing
to bet that there won't be a problem, and
that [BPL] will be used ubiquitously," he
says.

Proponents expect BPL to be a cheaper alternative for consumers who have
relied on cable and telephone companies for high-speed Internet service.

"The BPL component is probably going to be a low-cost competitor in any
market," says Allen Shark, president and CEO of the Power Lines
Communications Association. "The prices that we're starting to see are
less than $30 a month."
Another advantage power companies expect to have over its rivals:

BPL will provide Internet service to areas where cable companies do not
operate.

"Most rural areas have been underserved by rural providers," says Alex
Pardo, director of Cinergy Ventures, a subdivision of the Cincinnati
utility company Cinergy Corp. "Wherever there's a power line, [BPL] has
the potential to get a data service to go to areas that have been
underserved."

BPL will also encourage innovative technology, proponents say. "If every
power plug in your house becomes a broadband connection, that means that
almost anything you plug into the wall can connect to the Internet,"
says Thomas of the FCC. "That means that your refrigerator can have a
meaningful conversation with the supermarket and say, 'Hi, I need milk.'
Or you could call your house and say, 'I'm coming home in two hours,
turn the air conditioner on.' It's only restricted by imagination."

So far, ham operators have few allies - publicly, at least - to help
them keep the FCC rules from going into effect. One reason is that,
while police and other emergency-services could be affected, they have
not tested it.

"We would be concerned if it did interfere with our communications,
because those are critical, and involve lifesaving situations," says
Steve Cohler, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. But while the
organization "is aware of BPL," it does not know "the impact it would
have on [its] communications capabilities."

The Federal Emergency Management Administration is also looking into
BPL, but it has not yet come to a definite conclusion, says spokeswoman
LeaAnne McBride.

Other nations, however, have already made up their mind.

"It's a brilliant idea, but if you give it a more technical, detailed
look, it all falls apart," says Diethard Hansen, the external chairman
of the advisory group on BPL to RegTP, Germany's FCC equivalent. "It
suffers the enormous risk of uncontrolled interference to everyone."

During test trials of BPL in Britain and Japan, Mr. Hansen says,
interference was so strong that they pulled the plug on BPL.
"In Manchester [England], they failed miserably in the shortwave
frequency bands because the streetlights started working as antennas,"
he says. "In Japan, they had limited field trials in Osaka and Tokyo,
and interference got out of control. They had to stop it." Ham-radio
operators are concerned that BPL will cause the same problems in the US.

But proponents don't seem worried. "What was banned in Japan is very old
technology," says Thomas.

In addition, Mr. Shark says that BPL didn't work in Europe because of an
electrical grid that uses more voltage - and a political system overly
influenced by would-be BPL competitors. "We can't learn as much from
them."

Within a few weeks, the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) is expected to issue its report on the feasibility
of BPL in the US. Critics charge that the FCC should have waited for the
report before issuing its rules, and some even suggest that the White
House pressured the agency to push forward the job- creating technology.

But such pressure is not necessarily bad, says Mike Gallagher, acting
assistant secretary of commerce for communication and information at the
NTIA. "It's our goal to create jobs and to create technology that can
operate without interference. We can do both.  There is pressure to do
both because that's good management."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0426/p16s01-wmgn.html

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