That type of meter reading is very slow speed data as I recall, I think less than dial up. It works good for once a month meter readings and occasionally sending data bullets to shut down water heaters and such. As Adam mentioned the idea of BPL was flawed because they assumed in the models that there were many houses per transformer. In rural areas where they really want to do this there is more commonly one house per transformer so the business model falls apart. The other major issue was that the BPL systems used frequencies on open wires that interfered in a major way with various licensed services on the shortwave bands and as such they became unintentional radiators and that had international implications based on treaties. They tried to notch out the frequencies that they were causing interference but then that made the bandwidth for the broadband side suffer in a big way.
Thank You, Brian Webster -----Original Message----- From: AF [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Matt Hoppes Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:54 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Access Broadband over Powerline Our local power company has smart meters that they absolutely read over the powerline. I feel like even if you had to do a electric tap and a small access point at the transformer you could stomach it is the smile on it. > On Jul 19, 2018, at 20:46, Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: > > They use wireless for smart meters. Around here it's Wimax to feed a 900mhz base station, then 900 to the smart meter. In a different municipality nearby they have a mobile system that polls the meters when they drive by. So the meter reader still exists, but all he has to do is drive slowly down the street. > > I didn't look hard at BPL after learning about the transformer issue. That seems to make it a non-starter as far as I can tell. I think you can run some flavor of BPL on the primaries. Or run fiber down the road. Or wireless to the transformer, BPL to the house. > > If there was a viable business in BPL, every power company would already be doing it. They've had plenty of time to research the topic. > > -Adam > > >> On 7/19/2018 8:38 PM, Matt Hoppes wrote: >> Seems simple enough. >> >> So what means exist for BPL to the transformer? >> >> How do smart meters work? They have to jump the transformer some how. >> >>> On Jul 19, 2018, at 20:33, Adam Moffett <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Signal doesn't pass through transformers, so you need the access point on the customer side of the transformer. So you need a means to get internet to the pole which has the customer's transformer on it. If you could do that you wouldn't need the BPL. >>> >>> That's the long and the short of it. >>> >>> >>>> On 7/19/2018 8:18 PM, Matt Hoppes wrote: >>>> There was much chatter about this technology some years ago, and then the talk of it fizzled - even though the FCC approved it. >>>> >>>> Does anyone know of anyone making access wide area BPL equipment currently? >>>> >>>> Anyone here have any experience with it? >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> AF mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
