BPL and the president or presidents

[JDEVARIE]

Hello, this morning I bumped on this article, follow this link, (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4609864/) on MSN that reports that the president is proposing Broadband for all americans by 2007. May this be one of the reasons behind the deafness of the FCC when it comes to discussing the technical implications of implementing BPL without a rock solid plan? Since 2007 is so close, the only way I would think this can be accomplished is using an infrastructure that already reaches every home and that is the electrical company's power lines. (Maybe I do not see the whole picture)

73
jim

[N8UZE]

Please do not confuse Broadband with BPL.  Broadband can be accomplished a number of ways such as cable modem and wireless systems.  Many people are already on Broadband without BPL.  I saw the newsclip and all he said was Broadband.  BPL was not mentioned.

In the long run, due to unshielded wires and their susceptibility to all kinds of interference not just that from hams, BPL will eventually die away after some investors have lost their shirts.  Just as hams have often found distressingly high levels of noise coming into their radios via the powerlines, BPL users will find their communications disrupted by the same noise coming in those lines.  Both cable and wireless systems will prove to be more robust and a better value.

[JDEVARIE]

I know that broadband is achievable in many different ways. My comment was mainly based on the timeline that was presented in the article. It just seems to me personally that the timeline mentioned in the article can only be achieved if BPL was pushed forward without delay since many of the basic infrastructure obstacles are accomplished. Like you say wireless, cable and dsl broadband types are available but not througout the country, there are many places where these services are not available and implementing those there would take both time and money.
It just seemed to me that the timeline is very agressive to allow the implementation of the other types of broadband.

73

[KG4RUL]

The huge fallacy of BPL is that it requires a broadband backbone to get within a mile of the intended user.  If the investors have the capital to make this much of an investment, then the use of BPL for the 'last mile' does not give that much of a savings.  This function would be better served by WiFi or other means.

Dennis KG4RUL