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![Previous (earlier) Story](/images/sty-down.gif "ISS Commander Says "Thank You!" to the Amateur Radio Community"){kind=small} Previous: ISS Commander Says "Thank You!" to the Amateur Radio Community |  Next: ISS Commander on a Roll, Completes Another Set of Back-to-Back School QSOs |
March 22, 2006 -- The Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative
(SMECO) has ended a limited broadband over
power line (BPL) pilot project, concluding that the technology is not yet ready
for prime time in its service area. "At this time, SMECO believes that BPL
technology needs to advance further before it can meet the needs of our customers,"
the utility said in its March customer newsletter, Cooperative Review.
"BPL signal speeds and bandwidth are not competitive with other technologies
currently available." The ARRL is unaware of any radio frequency interference
complaints related to the SMECO BPL test, which ran from April through December
2005. The pilot program used Current Technologies equipment, which has shown to be among the BPL systems having less potential to interfere with Amateur Radio than others. The utility also cited safety concerns, the impact of BPL on the co-op's
current construction practices and "the lack of a proven method for delivering
BPL signals via underground power lines," which make up 60 percent of SMECO's
power grid. The utility further noted that currently available BPL hardware is
not remotely programmable, something it would need to offer such services as
pay-per-view programming, and that should the power grid get knocked out, BPL
service would go down with it. A member-owned
electric co-op, SMECO serves more than 130,000 customers in four Southern Maryland counties.
| Previous: ISS Commander Says "Thank You!" to the Amateur Radio Community | Next: ISS Commander on a Roll, Completes Another Set of Back-to-Back School QSOs |
