Strong doubts expressed about BPL

It’s encouraging, to say the least, that finally, within the telecomms industry there is acceptance that Broadband over Powerlines (BPL) has a multiplicity of issues in deployment.

According to the (13 March 2009 issue) US industry journal Network World, it is now recognised that BPL doesn't really cut the mustard against alternative internet delivery technologies in under-served rural areas.

That publication comments that BPL has management, operational, technical and radio interference difficulties.

It notes that BPL is actually yet to be demonstrated working in a widespread deployment.

Meantime the American Radio Relay League believes that BPL cannot be considered for rural and hard-to-serve areas unless its interference issues are addressed.

The ARRL recognises that while the Federal Communications Commission and various power utilities have touted BPL as a promising means of providing rural broadband service, that technology has prohibitive technical barriers.

These include the cost of large numbers of line repeaters and couplers necessary to service widely spaced subscribers.

Let alone before BPL could ever be considered as a long-term source of broadband in rural America, the FCC must adopt rules that provide against interference to the licensed radio services.

Of particular concern in rural areas is that low-band VHF radio systems are still common among state police, volunteer fire departments and other first responder public safety agencies.

The ARRL told the FCC in a submission that, "BPL systems using this frequency range can and would, without additional rules, likely block communications between dispatch centre and emergency response vehicles."

Network World article:
www.networkworld.com/news/2009/031309-broadband-fiber-wire.html?page=1

ARRL report:
www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/03/28/10731/?nc=1

Jim Linton VK3PC