A look at the possibility that New Yorkers will start getting Internet access from regular electrical power lines – a practice already common throughout Europe and in cities like Cincinnati

[www.gothamgazette.com]

While I applaud your bringing into focus the need for improved high-speed Internet access (which many call "broadband") throughout NY City, I believe that the approach you've chosen to highlight - i.e., BPL, or broadband over powerline, is the wrong one.

Until there is a scientific breakthrough that rids BPL of its interference issues, it will always be plagued with causing problems to radio frequency users of various types, as you've already noted. And, as the state of the art now stands, BPL will not deliver the very-high speeds end users will require for video, gaming and very large file transfers, but will rather be relegated to a "shared" utility that bogs down in speed once a sufficient number of users go online.

I don't mean to suggest that the utilities shouldn't be getting involved. If they chose to get involved, then they hold the promise of delivering high-grade fiber over their rights of way directly to homes and business, just like the telco and cable operators do. They could aslo support access points for WiFi and backhaul a neighborhood's WiFi traffic back to a central point over the same fiber and rights of way. Getting them to do so, however, is quite nother story.

On the matter of those you cited that are allegedly already using BPL? Are you certain they are obtaining "Internet" access from an ISP over those powerlines? Or, are they merely communicating "intra-building" over the building's internal electric cabling system in order to reach the basement, where a real Internet access line from one of the cable operators or telcos is located?

Frank