CheeseWare
Premium
join:2003-04-24
Burnaby, BC
| Interesting fine print
As noticed on the Prospect WebSite:
"Speed and uninterrupted use of service are not guaranteed. Acceptance of Prospect Street Terms of Service required. Limit one offer per power line. An installation fee and modem rental fee may apply. Laptop users and some desktop users may need to purchase an Ethernet card. Modem is a new or a fully inspected, tested, and warranted return unit. Self-installation not available in all areas. Other terms and conditions apply. Prospect Street reserves the right to revoke or amend this offer without notice."
All of this for $27/month and a lightweight broadband connection with no roadmap? Not clear what is the initial subscriber investment on top of this: must they purchase a special PLC LAN router? And does it really reach all home outlets once hooked up? I noticed the story refers to an implementation cost but not an operation and maintenance cost... Some Washington DC area lawyers will certainly do well on BPL deployment. Who is holding the money bag if this does not work out technically (aka RF interference), financially and/or in the regulatory area? |
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David95037
join:2003-04-16
Morgan Hill, CA
 ·Be There
| said by CheeseWare  :
As noticed on the Prospect WebSite:
Modem is a new or a fully inspected, tested, and warranted return unit.
Guess that many of the modems were last used in Linz!!! |
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w2co
join:2003-07-16
Longmont, CO
| reply to CheeseWare
Also keep in mind that any "EMI" filtering on your outlets must be bypassed, this includes most UPS systems as they inherently have EMI filtering built in. Even those simple power strips that have EMI filters installed will attenuate the signal. So if you want to run BPL at home you will not be able to run a UPS or EMI power strip, or else your connect speed will be only a fraction of the stated speeds if that at all. Did anyone say that all UPS systems must be redesigned for this technology? No and they won't tell you this either. |
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CheeseWare
Premium
join:2003-04-24
Burnaby, BC
| The trickiest matter on deploying PLC LANs is qualifying the wiring systems and equipment running on top of it, as you are eluding to (it reminds me of the access segment  ). I did put a posting on this topic several months ago looking for UPS and Surge Protection Vendors that would interwork with PLC LANs. There was very little interest on the BBR networking forum (or from Vendors I invited to respond); UL certification of such equipment is also an issue. Note that many UPS do not have an isolation transformer and will let these frequencies through. I have found one Vendor of PowerSurge equipment that will let the PLC LAN frequencies through. Controlling this kind of equipment in someone else premise in the immediate neighborhood is however not an easy matter. The promised "reach" of the PLC LAN to all AC outlets has definitely been overblown and likely hindered deployment of these LANs thus far. |
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