It would seem that BPL isn’t taking off after the sparks it originally created when first anticipated by the industry as a replacement for the expensive copper from Telstra.
BPL is running broadband over infrastructure that is sure to reach nearly every home in Australia, the common power line.
It’s an easy and assured way to reach masses of customers, without the mass infrastructure costs. In theory, and in practice the technology worked well.
However, it wasn’t sheilded from interference, which meant that Ham radio operators (there are still some around?!), would suffer interference as a result of the broadband signals travelling over the power lines.
The cost of investing wouldn’t be an issue, because such infrastructure is going to reach the customers en masse, and so, the investment would be a no brainer.
New homes being built for example, would be able to choose to not have a telephone cable put in, and instead use powerline infrastructure which they almost certainly will have installed, and obtain telecommunications services that way.
BPL doesn’t seem to be going anywhere however, because the companies that were sparking interest in it, such as Aurora Energy, a tasmanian power company, pulled out from continuing the trials during reviews.
It could be a possibility that someone solves the interference issue and other issues with BPL, however, competition with the cut throat telecommunications market is described as unlikely, because power companies, like Telstra, simply don’t like to play rough with competitors. For them, it’s better to simply stick to their job, supplying power to Telstra, instead of taking power and profit from Telstra.
Enjoy!