DISQUS

Neb Okla · 5 years ago

Interestingly power companies have been working to leverage their Right of Way (ROW) toward data for a long time.

In 1999, AEP replaced the lightning arrestor wires on the top of many power towers with dark fiber wrapped in a conductor. It still protects the power lines from lightning - but it can also carry fiber optic data.

Shortly thereafter AEP claimed one of the largest dark fiber networks in the country.

It sure would be nice to solve the "last mile" problem if a massive fiber optic infrastructure were able to travel over BPL from the substation to the home for example.

It'd also be one less thing to plug-in. And to get an Internet connection, one need only find a power plug.
Neb Okla · 5 years ago

Oh, here is a photo of an AEP dark fiber installation in 1999.
Neb Okla · 5 years ago

Um, oops. Doesn't look like this accepts HTML so for the time being I'll just put the URL in my message:

http://groups.msn.com/MarkNoblesPhotos/family.m...
Scott Dier · 5 years ago

BPL has a long hard road to follow too. I don't think the FCC is allowing BPL to go past the 'testing' stage just yet -- it causes harmful interference to existing radio services such as Amateur Radio, millitary, and other uses.

Power companies have not been able to contain their systems within the FCC Part 15 rules, either.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/08/17/2/?...
MonicaX · 3 years ago

Terrific blog you got. MonicaX