Morotola announces a new line of WiMax end nodes. The CPEi-100 is designed to be placed on the desk for location specific use. Certainly not mobile.

Don’t know what it is, but it seems that if it is a DSL/Cable/now WiMax modem the case style is a vertical format as preference. Why is that? Up to a point I can understand it for the WiMax device, the case is also the shell for the antenna. But Wifi does not need that yet that seems to be the style.

Sorry we don’t have specs on this device yet but we pass it on when we get them. But a passing thought. Motorola is moving into the Broadband over Powerline market. They have a whole suite of solutions targeted at the multi unit dwelling market. But there appears to be an opportunity for the single family residence as well.

80% of the housing in this country was built pre-CAT5. That means either new wire needs to be strung or the homeowner goes wifi for internal connections. But there is existing wiring — electrical. So why not marry the upcoming WiMax standard with BPL? WiMax is your internet connection and BPL is your distribution plant using your existing home wiring. In the Motorola portfolio I don’t see a product that matches that functionality.

Linky.

Myself and many fellow North Texans anxiously await the availability of broadband service over our power lines. Somewhere in the world, there is availability and uptake. Growth over last years is 100%.

In-Stat said that global broadband powerline equipment based on the HomePlug, CEPCA and UPA powerline standards reached sales of 5.4 million units in 2006. Global growth for broadband powerline networking equipment will approach 100 percent in 2007. (from Web Pro News)

If you’re a broadband monopolist, you probably dislike open standards because they then to make customers less captive. Of course you also enjoy the advantage of lower costs because you do not pay the lions share of the development cost. In fact if a standard is completely open, your customer may prefer to buy equipment instead of renting it from you. That;s the only problem I see with the potential for a common standard for BPL, copper, and coax. Never the less, such a standard may be on the way.

Europe’s International Telecommunication Union is hammering out a home network standard designed to run over telephone, powerline or coax networks. At least one proposal for the so-called “g.hn” effort calls for a gigabit physical layer to deliver video throughout a home.”Maybe this will help consolidate the [fragmented] home network efforts,” said Barry O’Mahony, a senior staff systems engineer at Intel Corp. who has been attending the g.hn meetings. “This has potential to get traction as a next-generation offering, so we’re taking a long serious look at it,” he added.
Other companies active in the group include BT, Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom, Intellon, Panasonic and Texas Instruments. The Intel engineer said technical requirements for the spec could be set by a February meeting in Geneva with a final standard possible by the end of the year. (from EE times)

Lets see now. People could own a gigabit capable router that fits their individual needs, that interfaces with any network, and then could just shop around for the best deal? Why not?

DS2, the leading producer of BPL chip sets ran a successful demo of 400MPS broadband over power lines transmission using their new generation of silicon / reference design. This represents a potentially disruptive technology on 2 fronts. First, 400MBPS is 4 times as fast as the average wired or wireless network, and the cable plant for use is already in place anywhere an electrical outlet can be found. Secondly, if the electric utilities can ever get a handle on delpoying the technology and overcoming the mariad of local regulations (the FCC has already blessed BPL as a legit service on the national level), then we’ll have a big third pipe. It’s also worth noting that electric utilies have a traditional mindset of being a pipe, not a content provider.

Yesterday, DS2, a leading provider of chipsets for powerline networking devices, hosted a demonstration of its next-generation equipment for the press and financial analysts. The hardware was impressive, handling data at sustained rates of well over 400Mbps while maintaining backwards compatibility with earlier generations of the company’s hardware. But, while powerline networking is a promising solution for a number of problems, there are some substantial challenges to its adoption by the broader market. (from ARS Technica)

Here’s an idea for multi-unit landlords, courtesy of the public housing authority in the UK. It’s called Broadband over Power Line. It’s easier to do than Wifi in many situations like high rises with no dead spots. It can offer better performance to the end user as well.

Gallions Housing Association is testing a wireless broadband solution from Motorola that provides residents with affordable broadband services.
Gallions has 150 multi-unit dwellings and many of these are high-rise blocks that are traditionally expensive to connect to broadband.  (from 24dash)

Oncor’s BPL network, which the company is building with Current Communications, now covers 106,000 homes. Oncor has installed so-called smart meters at 61,000 of those homes, allowing the electricity company to communicate directly with those meters at any time.

From my own experience with the the Duopoloy operators in DFW, DirecTV / Current has a ready market for a serious competitor. My fastest “pro” DSL service from AT&T has provided a rock solid 5MBPS sustained download speed, but up speed rarely exceeds 175KBPS, and the “lightning fast” 10MBPS connection from Time Warner rarely exceeds 1MBPS in a sustained download lasting more than a few seconds, with roughly equal upload speeds. Time warner service also has a terrible habit of dying in a rainstorm. The cost of either is just under $60 per month (AT&T pro DSL is actually $34.95, but they require you to rent a telephone line, that is another $20 in its most minimal form). AT&T’s service has been good and responsive, although it did take several calls to get the bandwidth I was paying for correctly “provisioned”, and I can only assume this was an isolated error on AT&T’s part. Time Warner’s service has had me hanging with serious unresolved issues for 3 months now, including a 3 week old unfulfilled order to end service.