BPL is not dead in the least if you believe this press release from an Ecuador electric company:

BNamericas reports that Ecuadorian power company CentroSur is deploying a fibre-optic ring in Cuenca to support a launch of broadband services in the city next year. The utility, which expects to receive telecoms licences this month, plans to invest an initial USD2 million in launching broadband internet access over a hybrid network based on fibre-optic, wireless and broadband-over-power line (BPL) technologies.  (Telegeography)

Since Ecuador has not NAB or ARRL supported by a duopoly actively working to undermine the project, perhaps it really has a chance there. We’ll be watching for more news.

The great broadband over power line experiment in Dallas has ended. No reason for of why the Current / DirectTV partnership is shutting down was stated, but the powerful Ham Radio lobby probably had more than a little to do with it. It’s no secret that the anti-competitive Cable / Telco duopoly interests are served by the demise of this new offering of choice to consumers.

An ambitious plan for using power lines to deliver fast Internet service to 2 million Dallas-area homes collapsed Thursday, when Oncor agreed to buy the system.

Current Communications said it will sell its so-called smart grid of networking equipment to the utility for $90 million.

Current expects to close the deal in a few weeks.

DirecTV customers who get Internet service through Current’s network will probably lose service then.

“Oncor is not in the telecommunications business, and it has no plans to get into the telecommunications business,” said Chris Schein, a spokesman for the Dallas-based company. (Denton RC)

BPL is still a promising technology in a world with too few options for broadband service. Who will be the first to implement? Probably an under served populace far from US soil that is outside of the reach of those who do not want a Third Pipe.

Something’s wrong when the FCC can run a near sham auction and award most of the wireless spectrum to two incumbent monopolies only to have their BPL regulations overturned by a handful of hobbyists. Then again in the auction, billions were collected, and the judge that’s holding BPL up is probably an ARRL member. Reality is there is nothing fair, impartial, or openly competitive about the way things are being run by our government.

When setting rules for BPL operators nearly two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission said it was trying to encourage deployment of a “third pipe” to compete with cable and DSL services, while establishing limits aimed at protecting public safety, maritime, radio-astronomy, aeronautical navigation, and amateur radio operators from harmful interference. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), which represents amateur and ham radio operators, however, promptly sued the agency, contending that the FCC’s approach was insufficient to ward off interference with its radios and inconsistent with its previous rules.

On Friday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia on Friday issued a ruling (PDF) that took issue with the way the FCC arrived at its rules. (Cnet)

We’ve reported on this before, only to see nothing happen. It’s in the news again, so here we go again. Current Energy is in the process of building a BPL network in Dallas / Fort Worth. The network is used by electric suppliers to read power meters as well as to provide broadband service. With the telcos now firmly in control of UHF wireless, this could be the next opportunity to have a real third pipe.

Current has equipped nearly 130,000 homes in part of Old East Dallas to receive the service, while DirecTV has just begun marketing to about half the homes.

Packages now range from a 1.5 Mb connection that costs $20 a month to an 8 Mb connection that costs $35 a month. Special deals can push costs down to as little as $10 a month.

DirecTV says those prices beat anything its competitors sell in the same area. It also touts several cool features of broadband over power lines. (Dallas Morning News)

Appearently the service is currently only avialable to Directv subscribers in old east Dallas. My calls to Directv customer service were received with a big huh??? If you are one of the lucky few who can get service, it’s sounds like a great deal. We’ll really appreciate hearing form anyone with service in place on even anyone who has been contacted about it.

Will Ready Killowatt ever morph into Ready Gigbit? That’s a question for the people who own and manage the power lines. As for what level of access they can provide if they chose to, the possible bandwidth has increased by 100% in the last few months. Now there is a second player in addition to DS2 entering the 400MBPS chip market:

Powerline networking specialist Devolo will next month demo an Ethernet-over-the-mains prototype capable of delivering up to 400Mb/s bandwidth.

Devolo’s keeping mum about the details until it shows the kit off at the CeBIT show in Hannover. We suspect the unit essentially comprises two separate 200Mb/s HomePlug AV that sit between the mains power cables and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

By pairing the 200Mb/s adaptors, Devolo essentially doubles the available bandwidth. Just as 200Mb/s powerline Ethernet doesn’t deliver that perfect-world throughoput, so the 400Mb/s units only deliver real-world speeds of up to 180Mb/s, Devolo admitted.

But that’s still double what at 200Mb/s unit can provide and sufficient, the company claimed, for five HD video streams to be routed over the network simultaneously. (from the Register)

We’ve reported a few announcements about service roll out’s using BPL. To date, I can find no evidence of any wide availability of BPL access. It’s conceptually a natural in the wire line access business. Are any readers BPL wsubscribers? If so, please comment or email. Email is thirdpipe@gmail.com or you can comment by registering and logging in.

We’ve already given a good bit of coverage to the overly optimistic picture painted by the NTIA in their report Networked Nation: Broadband in America 2007 that was released on January 31, 2008. Those civic minded hams who have been a hyperactive opponent of BPL or powerline broadband deployment have also brought a huge discrepancy said deployments to our attention:

Five years of experience in dealing with BPL systems as a radio interference source have given the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, considerable insight into the BPL industry. Based on that experience, the ARRL has concluded that the FCC’s figure of fewer than 5000 BPL customers is entirely credible. Therefore, the ARRL set out to determine the source of the “estimate” of 200,000 current BPL subscribers.

We contacted TIA and were advised that the figure came from a market study prepared by Wilkofsky Gruen Associates Inc and based on research conducted by In-Stat, a unit of Reed Business Information.

So we contacted In-Stat and asked how the figure was derived. They responded: “The 200,000 number for BPL subs did not come from In-Stat. In our US broadband forecast, we estimate about 231,000 broadband subscribers in the ‘other’ category besides DSL, cable, satellite. Other includes BPL, but is not solely BPL.”

We then contacted Wilkofsky Gruen Associates. They responded: “Our source for the BPL figures was In-Stat.” When In-Stat’s denial was shared with them, they responded, “It was our understanding that BPL was the principal component as it was the first item listed by In-Stat.”

TIA was invited to comment but declined to do so. (from ARRL)

The ARRL also requested that NTIA revise the report, with no response so far.

If the agency can be so deliberately far off the mark with BPL numbers, it really calls the entire body of the report into question. It’s astonishing to me that the tech and “mainstream” media has so willingly missed this! More independent, non-governmental bodies need to review and question this report. More noise need to be made. Any volunteers?

Utilizing their BPL network, Current and their partners now have the ability monitor power line condition, usage and more real time. This could result in faster repairs, and more just in time adjustments to generation capacity online which could translate into huge savings.

GERMANTOWN, Md., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ — CURRENT Group, LLC announces the deployment of the nation’s first high-speed utility home area network (HAN) using programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs) and load control switches communicating over the Smart Grid deployed for Oncor Electric
Delivery Company in Dallas, Texas. The system communicates demand response requests and other critical information from the utility to the customer and verifies the results of the requests, all in real-time. This unique solution will be used initially by retail electric providers Direct Energy, Reliant Energy and TXU Energy as part of a joint collaborative effort by the Center for the Commercialization of Electric Technologies (CCET) to bring innovative technologies to Texas. (from PR News Wire)

No word on the often touted broadband access service using the same network. If any readers have it, please post here or email.

Here’s an idea that both the miserly and the tree huggers will love equally. Using scalable, cloud based tech to manage the demand and production side of the power grid - down to the individual user level. All transmitted over the same power grid.

The Department of Energy has just wrapped up a fascinating experiment in Washington State in which it provided both homeowners and their appliances with tools that can sense stress on the power grid. Homeowners who made use of the tools saved money—approximately 10 percent on their electric bills—and the grid was more stable, too.

There were two projects, both of which were run by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory over the last year. In the Olympic Peninsula project, 112 homeowners used new electric meters, thermostats, water heaters, and dryers that were all connected to specialized home gateways. Using software designed by IBM, the homeowners in the study could tell their appliances to react to the changing cost of electricity throughout a day by changing behavior—lowering the temperature of the home or water heater, for instance.

Not only did the system save users an average of 10 percent on their monthly electric bills, but it also reduced peak distribution loads by 50 percent on many days. (from Ars Technica)

The civil libertarian in me does have concerns. If politicians ever get tech savvy enough, they may try to micro manage how we consume energy. It may be time to limit thoer authority before they grant more of it to themselves.

That’s right sparky, the Japanese guys best known for consumer electronics are big in BPL networking! Panasonic is the dominant player in BPL devices in Japan, and they are predicting solid growth in the US. Showing product for the first time, and presumably we will be able to purchase products in the US sometime after the show concludes.

Among the powerline products, many of them prototypes, was a photo printer, all sorts of Ethernet bridges, a USB hub, a Wi-Fi router, a WiMax router, an MP4 player, a point-of-sales computer, and Ethernet phone adapters, many of them from Panasonic itself.

Despite years of promise, broadband-over-powerline has had little success in the United States. In late 2006, the FCC passed a resolution endorsing the technology, and IEEE last year moved to draft standards for the technology. Robin Sweeten, group manager of strategic marketing for Panasonic, said in an interview that issues with interference that had long gotten amateur radio operators in a bind have been smoothed out. Now the challenge, he said, is consumer awareness. (from Information Week)

Bandwidth hungry residents of the Caribbean Island nation will soon have more options as BPL is deployed by the government run electric power utility.

Carol Balkaran, Tariff Analyst at the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) said TTEC plans to deploy the service utilising a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) Technology Platform which also has regulatory implications for RIC and TATT.

“BPL is a technology that offers exciting possibilities for TTEC. It can provide a host of internal benefits that can improve the performance of the service provider. If the service is to be offered commercially then it can possibly enhance the competitiveness of the broadband market in Trinidad and Tobago, “ Balkaran said. (from Newsday.co.tt)

Congratulations to the Trinidad & Tabago! Look for growth in industries beyond tourism and energy as the opportunity for knowledge work and world commerce becomes readily available.