 - Broadband over Power Line (BPL) is a technology that allows Internet data to be transmitted over utility power lines. (BPL is also sometimes called Power-line Communications or PLC.) In order to make use of BPL, subscribers use neither a phone, cable or a satellite connection. Instead, a subscriber installs a modem that plugs into an ordinary wall outlet and pays a subscription fee similar to those paid for other types of Internet service.
BPL works by modulating high-frequency radio waves with the digital signals from the Internet. These radio waves are fed into the utility grid at specific points. They travel along the wires and pass through the utility transformers to subscribers' homes and businesses. Little, if any, modification is necessary to the utility grid to allow transmission of BPL. This mode has not yet been widely deployed in the United States, but it has been implemented in a few other countries, with varying results. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently working on a set of rules according to which BPL may be implemented in the United States. If it is put into use, BPL will be an unlicensed service, and will be governed by rules similar to those that apply to cordless telephones, television remote controls, and other consumer electronic devices.
Some people say BPL represents an ideal solution for people in rural areas. But many engineers, along with officials in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), fear that BPL will interfere with fire, police, shortwave, land mobile, and other radio systems important to national security. Amateur radio operators have voiced their concerns as well. BPL subscribers may also be adversely affected by the electromagnetic fields that radio transmitters generate in the course of their normal and licensed operations. The utility power lines are not shielded, as is coaxial cable, and some of the frequencies suggested for BPL operation lie within the spectra assigned to essential wireless services.
| CONTRIBUTORS: |
Dave Christian |
| LAST UPDATED: |
15 Nov 2005
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