Carrying the Internet over the electricity grid is a solution to problems of broadband availability in rural areas that has been long-discussed but ran into persistent problems with radio and radar interference in earlier trials. Now, apparently, trials in Crieff, Campbeltown and Stonehaven in Scotland “have been successful”:http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143183 and Scottish Hydro-Electric is expanding its coverage to Winchester in England. It is charging £29 per month which is competitive with “conventional” ADSL but offers 1Mb of bandwidth in both directions instead of the 512Kbps download/256Kbps upload speed offered by BT and others. Another benefit is that you can plug into broadband anywhere in your house instead of relying on a single access point.
16 September 2003
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i wonder how long till it gets to the us … this would be a great step and would even (if kept at the competitive price range) help some of the people with less resources
Comment by moe — 26 September 2003 @ 10:12 pm
In the U.S., it’s the power companies that often inhibit the roll-out and speedy deployment of media and communications technologies by charging broadband deployers outrageous amounts for access to their utility poles.
It’s a huge element of communications infrastructure policy that does not get the attention it should otherwise merit.
How are things at the LSE, Dave?
Comment by Russ Taylor — 30 September 2003 @ 3:09 am