Subject: (Fist) (Dumpe) (Wabnig) Internet on Power Lines "PLC" (fwd)
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 031033 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 16:38:41 +1100
From: Stewart Fist
To: "Roy L. Beavers"
Subject: Re: (Dumpe) (Wabnig) Internet on Power Lines "PLC" (fwd)
The attempts to send data over powerlines are as old as I am. They have
regularly been proposed, and regularly failed -- for the simple reason that an
unshielded wire hanging in the open air through suburban streets, is the best
collector of random radio noise that anyone can construct.
In any data environment, noise reduces the ability to transmit data reliably.
So the problem is one of cable ingress (interference intrusion), more than it
is of egress (outgoing). There's also a problem of getting high-frequency
signals past street transformers.
Nortel's idea has been around for a few years, and it has been dismissed by
almost every company that has looked at it. What's more it has been attacked
by every radio organisation in the world, because if it ever did work (and
that is highly unlikely at any useful level) it would destroy much of the
nation's radio communications systems.
In other words, even if it did work, it would be totally counter-productive.
Frankly, I wouldn't spend ten minutes worrying about it, until (if) they ever
get it to work. Then you can join the clamouring throng to have it stopped.
You'll have plenty of friends.
--
Stewart Fist - writer and columnist
See http://technology.news.com.au/opinion/
http://www.abc.net.au/http/sfist/ (some archives)
http://www.electric-words.com (main archives)
70 Middle Harbour Road, Lindfield, 2070, N.S.W, Australia
Phone +61 2 9416 7458 Fax +61 2 9416 4582
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html