Pierre finds PBL

It's time to hear from Amateur Radio NewsLine's roving reporter Pierre Pullinmyleg.

Pierre has learned of a new front in the Broadband over Powerline or BPL battle. This as several overseas telephone and cable companies have decided to fight back with a new, and rather strange technology of their own. We have more in this somewhat exclusive report from Pierre.

A consortium of cable and telephone companies is rolling out its answer to Broadband over Power Lines ... Power over Broadband Lines, or PBL.

Using the same technology that makes BPL possible, only installing the units upside down and backwards, the broadband companies have found that they can send electric power over cable TV and telephone lines. As a result, they say computers, televisions and appliances connected to the internet via PBL will no longer have to be plugged into electrical outlets. Instead, their power will come through their cable or phone wires.

Telephone companies have always run low-voltage D-C power down their lines, which is why phones often keep working during power failures. But the new technology will permit them to run 110-volt AC on their lines as well. The only remaining technical hurdle, officials say, is preventing the voltage spikes that tend to accompany incoming spam e-mail.

Asked about the risks of electrocution, a spokesman for Ze Authority du Power, or ZAP, said engineers there, who have also done BPL studies, say the risk of electric shock from a properly installed PBL system is no greater than the risk of radio interference from a BPL system. Nevertheless, they recommend that PBL customers use only cordless telephones, TVs with remote controls and computers with
wireless infrared keyboards.

Reporting from the well-insulated "rubber room" at ZAP headquarters, near Paris, this is Pierre Pullinmyleg for zee Newsline.

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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