Broadband Over Powerline Future Fading Away

5/8/2008, Information Week -- "Dying slowly over the past few months, the hope of using utility powerlines for broadband transmission is receiving what appears to be a conclusive nail in its coffin as a Texas utility company this month said it will buy the broadband-over-powerline (BPL) business owned by Current Group. . . Pioneering BPL deployments in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and in Manassas, Va., have also faded. In Manassas -- once the pioneering test bed for the technology -- the city's supplier, ComTek, has been sold. Ham radio operators had waged a long and contentious battle, charging that BPL interfered with their signals. The Sault Ste. Marie provider, Amperion, has left the BPL business and reinvented itself as a provider of hybrid networks. In Australia, different utilities have either dropped BPL deployments altogether or are downsizing them to a point approaching demise, according to recent media reports."

Pacific Gas and Electric plans to deploy up to 3.3 million GE meters equipped with SmartMeter™ technology by 2011
October, 2008 : – Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) of California plans to deploy as many as 3.3 million GE meters equipped with SmartMeter™ technology to utility customers in northern and central California. These meters will help customers manage their energy consumption and costs, while helping the utility improve customer service. Overall, PG&E plans to deploy 10.3 million SmartMeter gas and electric meters by the end of 2011 to virtually all of its customers.

 UTC Announces Smart Network Council
June, 2008 -- UTC announced the creation of the Smart Networks Council. It is a special forum created for utility executives responsible for implementing Automatic Meter Reading, Advanced Metering Initiatives or Demand Response and Distribution Automation Applications. UTC provides public policy advocacy, technology training, spectrum engineering services, and networking for individuals at the member entities.

Is it Lights Out for Broadband Over Powerline?
5/8/2008, IT Business Edge -- "Broadband over powerline (BPL) always has been intriguing, despite the fact that even its staunchest proponents understand that the data rates it provides don’t hold a candle to other broadband conduits. . . For the most part, however, BPL has been a disappointment. The lowered cost of broadband and the ability of dial-up to satisfy very basic users is squeezing BPL from both directions. From the technical standpoint, sending sensitive signals along with all that electricity is the equivalent of debutantes carpooling with professional wrestlers. Ham radio operators have consistently opposed projects because of interference issues."

Broadband service over power lines in Texas to shut down
5/8/2008, Washington Post (via AP)-- "Goodbye, broadband over power lines. We hardly knew you.  Once touted as a possible third option for home broadband that could compete with phone and cable companies, the idea of providing Internet service over power lines now looks like it has died in infancy. A Texas utility company said last week that it is taking control of the equipment that was to be used in the largest planned U.S. deployment of broadband over power lines, or BPL -- and won't be using it to provide Internet service. . .  The network was to offer Internet service to 2 million electricity customers through their wall outlets. Instead, Oncor will use the data capabilities of the network to monitor the electric grid. 'Our business is delivering electricity, not being an Internet provider or a television provider,' said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein. Other BPL trials have met with similar fates, though a few are still in operation. Compared to coaxial cables and copper phone lines, power lines are poor conduits for data. Some deployments also met fierce legal resistance from ham radio operators, who found that BPL created radio interference."

The Feds as Cheerleaders
5/6/2008, Andrew Seybold -- "The government's job is not to act as a cheerleader for a technology it thinks is "interesting" such as BPL or unlicensed white noise. Rather, it is to have its engineering staff review and test the technologies, weigh the pluses and minuses of each and then make recommendations that are followed by the Commission. Unfortunately, it appears those days are over and what we are left with is a politics and damn the consequences attitude!"

BPL Powers Down
5/5/2008, WiFi Net News -- "Part of the “BPL is dead” argument I make today stems from an appeals court decision in late April which affirms the FCC licensed/unlicensed approach, but which requires the agency to re-evaluate its information about interference. The FCC failed to disclose fully information from studies it relied on in setting rules, which violated public process. The ARRL wrote up the appeals decision on their site, and notes that a study in the UK that was fully released showed a much lower threshold would be needed. The agency’s need to redo some of its work, a potential shift of power to Democrats on the commission starting 20-Jan-2009, and the fact that other work shows the rules were established incorrectly could result in restrictions on BPL that make it even less likely to be rolled out."

Should the Texas PUC let Oncor stop BPL Internet?
5/5/2008,  Dallas Morning News -- "Brief synopsis: Current had planned to rent some of the space on its network to Oncor -- which would use it to save power and improve maintenance. The rest of the network, which will eventually cover 2 million area homes, was to be rented to consumers who wanted fast Internet. All that changed when Oncor agreed to buy out Current for $90 million and complete network construction on its own. Oncor will still use the network to improve its operations, but the company has no plans, at present, to sell extra space for consumer Internet.  The news lead several of my friends to argue that the Texas Public Utilities Commission should step in to stop the sale."

Broadband over power lines plan is dead in Dallas
5/2/2008, Dallas Morning News -- The Dallas Morning News reported that the ambitious plan to deliver broadband over power lines to 2 million of their customers has been scrapped by a decision to use the BPL system only for utility applications. This also derailed arrangements for DirecTV to provide BPL services to their customers. The equipment that presently passes 64000 homes in Dallas was purchased by Oncor, the involved utility for a reported $90 million.

Dallas BPL already dead?
5/2/2008, Parks Associates -- "Although we were encouraged by the DirecTV/Current/Oncor experiment, we always believed that BPL is a niche technology and it won't be a significant competitor to cable, DSL, and fiber broadband. In the post, we mentioned that we forecasted 0.5% of U.S. broadband households will be using BPL technology by 2012 (and this forecast included the potential subscribers DirecTV might have signed up if the deal had gone through). The current count is only about 10,000 U.S. households. BPL will continue to face challenges and Oncor abandoning their original plan will definitely add salt to injury."

Court tells FCC to revisit BPL rules
5/2/2008, Mobile Radio Technology -- "In a ruling last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the amateur-radio organization ARRL on two items regarding the FCC’s BPL rules, requiring the agency to disclose the entirety of its BPL field tests cited in the rules and to explain its reasoning for emission-level limits. . .  Although the ARRL noted that Ofcom—the United Kingdom’s regulatory agency—had conducted three studies indicating that 20 dB per decade would be an accurate measure, the FCC dismissed the studies, stating that it was not a “convincing argument” but offered no explanation for its position. . . The FCC can appeal the ruling to the full circuit court or to the Supreme Court. If it declines to appeal, the agency must revisit emission-level extrapolation issue, either providing reasoned justification for the 40 dB-per-decade factor or establish a new extrapolation factor. . . .  If the FCC were to use the 20 dB extrapolation factor advocated by ARRL, it likely would impact the economics to deploy the technology, <Dave> Sumner <ARRL> said. 'Presumably, the power would have to be turned down in these systems, and that might result in reduced reliability, reduced throughput and the need for more hardware to be installed—repeaters at closer intervals along the line,' Sumner said. 'So we anticipate that the industry is going to strongly resist a revised extrapolation factor.' Thus far, BPL deployments have not been a significant problem to ARRL, Sumner said. First, with less than 5000 commercial customers nationwide as of the middle of 2007, BPL is not available in many areas.  In addition, the most successful BPL technology provider—Current Communications, which has a large deployment in Texas—has worked with ARRL in an effort to ensure that its broadband rollouts do not interfere with amateur-radio operations, he said. 'We’ve had essentially no problems with Current’s deployments,' Sumner said."

Broadband Over Power Line Gets a KO Punch
5/2/2008, Gigacom -- "The great broadband hope, “Broadband over Power Line,” has turned out to be a big broadband nope. Not that I am surprised. I never believed its promise, even despite the incessant hype by none other than the FCC. A court’s decision has proven me right: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pretty much concludes that the FCC was misguided and overenthusiastic about BPL, and that it ignored the interference data."

Is BPL Down for the Count? Yup, Probably.
5/2/2008, IP Democracy -- "When it comes to communications policy in the U.S., there are two major goals -- either regulate in the absence of competition or spur more competition in order to obviate the need for regulation. That's the main reason why the FCC, led down the primrose path by proponents, glommed onto broadband-over-powerline (BPL) several years back. But BPL, a kludgy technology aimed at squeezing communications-strength capacity out of power lines, is almost DOA in the USA. First, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week rapped the FCC on the knuckles for failing to take a look at studies that deal with BPL's propensity for interference as it rushed to adopt new rules promoting the competitive alternative. Now, as Karl Bode points out, the biggest BPL advocate, Current Communications (one of the chief primrose path guides) is selling its high-profile Dallas BPL network to local utility Oncor for $90 million. Oncor is going to use the "smart grid" set-up for...electricity. Although cities and utilities are largely responsible for the hype and public policy push surrounding BPL, I say all the idealistic and uninformed research outfits that pumped out study after study saying BPL was the next big thing are equally responsible for the unrealisitic hopes surrounding BPL. Smart people have always know that BPL, although worth investigating, was never going to inject enough competition into the marketplace to give either cable or phone companies a run for their money."

Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) Stumbles
5/2/2008, DSL Reports -- "While the FCC once called broadband over power lines (BPL) the "great broadband hope," the technology has been stuck in neutral, thanks largely to its tendency to interfere with local wireless transmissions, and the fact that many utilities don't want to get into the broadband business. Things have only gotten worse for the struggling sector the last two weeks. . .  This week finds the industry's flagship BPL deployment in Dallas, supported by DirecTV and frequently cited as an example of the technology's successes, being sold to the local utility. The network, through which DirecTV and Current Communications hoped to offer BPL service to 2 million residents, will now simply be used for smart-electrical grid monitoring. From the Dallas Morning News: DirecTV has used Current's network to sell broadband over power lines to customers in the first 64,000 homes to be wired for the service. The plan had been to expand the DirecTV service area – and increase the number of BPL retailers – as Current attached networking equipment to more power transformers and expanded the smart grid across the region.
You can't say we didn't warn you. BPL is a niche solution with problems, not a third major competitive pipe."

Appeals Court Wants Better Reasoning on BPL
5/2/2008, Radio World -- "A federal appeals court has sided in part with ham radio operators who challenged FCC rules establishing the broadband over power lines (BPL) service, according to the American Radio Relay League. The decision sends the rules back to the commission to defend how it arrived at some of its conclusions and publicize its related studies. But the court didn’t overturn the BPL service rules, which remain in effect. The ARRL said the ruling is significant in that it could lead to changes in the rules and in the way some BPL companies operate. The FCC had no comment on the decision. At issue when the FCC instituted BPL service rules nearly two years ago was the question of whether BPL operation could interfere with amateur radio frequencies. The commission wanted to create BPL as a “third” broadband pipe into homes. We reported at the time the ARRL opposed the BPL service rules as created, citing interference concerns. The AARL <sic> later sued the agency, saying the rules were not enough to prevent harmful interference to ham frequencies."

Shocking times for Aussie broadband over powerline
3/5/2008, ZDNet.com.au -- It seemed like a good idea at the time, but Australian utilities' recent abandonment of broadband over powerline (BPL) technology has all but sealed the fate of a technology that was once hoped to bring high-speed data to every corner of Australia.

Recent NTIA Data on Broadband Penetration May Be Flawed
2/7/2008, WiMax.com -- The National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently released a report on Broadband in America in which it cites that 99 percent of the nation's zip codes have broadband available. ---the problem is this conclusion may be very flawed.

CIA says hackers pulled plug on power grid
1/23/2008, Network World -- "Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week. Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong. "