Still...having an alternative to the best solutions is always good. Just look at my island, we got wireless and modems and ADSL....and all are capped at 128kbit/32kbit and laggy and all cost 300USD a month....now if we could actually make use of the power cables....

wow first ive heard o dis man this will cut down on bills for internet cuz the companies wont have to run xtra lines plus it will b easier for us since we can just have some contraption that plugs into a wall and make an instant 10/100 plug or w/e
when this coems out im gonna get it

Still i am using dial up 56k... DSL is still expensive here... although i think it's cheap but i don't have a job yet.. 512 kbps is probably... 50 bucks or 25 bucks...

This is old technology. If my memory chip is still working it's called carrier through the mains. I also saw it in one of my electronic magazines from the 70s so it's nothing really new. In the magazine it shows you how to construct a doorbell and button in which the button is connected to the mains, sending the activation signal to the doorbell without a need for more cables.

Broadband over the power lines is not new technology at all, only the availability to the average consumer is new. most countries have the massive copper network that is provided by the power suppliers that is why they are now looking at utilizing this means of delivery of higher speed broadband to the consumer.

In OZ its been trialed in Tasmania for several years now in a suburb the local communications giant TELSTRA didn't want anything to do with.... Now the entire community has high speed internet, voip, and TV on Demand all via their power lines.

The OZ Govt has also made a large push for the general public to have access to Broadband services by way of rebates and incentives to ISP's to supply technology to their customers at a reasonable rate, insuring that all consumers have the opportunity to run high speed internet from their home. We've just taken up the opportunity for Broadband satellite where I live as the Power company in my area has not started the roll out of their service yet and TELSTRA's ADSL network will never reach our house due to limits on the the local exchange and also the distance that ADSL will comfortably work.

Personally though I see Wi Fi and other wireless technologies taking over the home users preferred choice of Internet service, it just makes more sence to pay for one service that you will be able to use anywhere, weather it be at home in your bedroom or at the town library or while your away on holidays at your favorite camping for beach spot....

For more info on the Power Line internet service check out Aurora Energy or Seltel, alternatively check out the new Next G service from TELSTRA not that I like the company but the product is good. (Used to work for them so maybe I'm a little bias)

i remember hearing about this ages ago, i thought the idea died out since there hasn't been much media on it for quite a while now. i found it interesting that they actually used it in some areas; never would have guessed it too be australia haha! its just seems weird to me, we usually have one mainstream method of data transfer and stick to it.

i actually thought that the technology was still in development and would some day replace cable/adsl, but now you say adsl with optic fiber is much faster (which is understandable) i'm pretty disappointed. i really wanted HIGH speed (ie. 100mb) data transfer through power lines, it makes a lot of things far more convenient; but then it brings up the matter of networking as well. would we still need hubs/routers to network pcs or would they automatically be networked through the power lines. if they were networked through power lines, then would all pcs be networked? i mean, if u still need to cable your pcs up with a hub, the whole idea of power line internet seems rather un-innovative. then again you could link up your pcs through wi-fi... but wi-fi is rather poor for home networking imo.

ahh well, theres still the internet 2 to look forward isn't there? or am i mistaking it for something else? i remember reading an article about it having super data transfer speeds... would that be to do with the actually cabling or protocols used? ;t now i'm just confusing myself.

I think the ability to be able to access the internet by using power lines is a good thing and possibly one which will be used by most people in the future.

There are many advantages for using the power lines to access the internet. :- using the electric is fast, easy, saves having ethernet wires through walls/ceilings, would most likely be a cheap method if it was a standard thing that broadband was to be included by electric cabling.

However, there still are a couple of disadvantages. These are :- If a lot of people are using the internet at the same time. (I would guess that neighbours and nearby residents would be using the same connection), the speed could be greatly affected, there could be plenty of downtime, especially during storms and also if someone had poor fitted wiring, an electrician would be needed to come and work out why there isn't a broadband connection travelling through the electrics.

Overall, I think being able to access the internet through electrical power lines would be a good thing and as said above, it would make the internet a lot easier and quicker to access. People would just plug into the electric supply and they'd be online.
It would be good to see this method being used a lot in the future and I think it will.

over the power lines?????
so we've got all these switching power supplies throwing line noise onto the grid that everyone has to buy power conditioners so they don't have problems that they have just caused, and now into that noise someone wants to throw signal and try to pull it back out again? Bizzare dead end.

Hahaha.

I don't know if that kind of thing is feasible here in where I live, where poor people still have to pilfer electricity.

This is a good idea though, and I'd like to see it in my place someday. I'm currently on cable internet, and it's okay; doesn't lag like DSL.