The news is that a power supply company is going to market with it.
Back on their patent, they seem to be saying they have done data up to a
megabit. Its worth asking if this has been demonstrated as scaling to more
than a small number of households, and what the head-end equipment is
that achieves this. If the equipment really is much cheaper than ADSL well
and good. Its noticeable that they are using fibre to connect substations
which would mean some investment in a distribution grid, unless the utility
already has that done. I know SEQEB make much of the fibre they have, but
its not clear if this covers the entire distribution chain down to the sub-
station, or if its just linking the major High-Tension distribution chains
(which is more of interest to long-distance providers than resellers of access
to the domestic or small business sector)
The price is probably unrelated to the cost of provisioning. Given timecharge
in the UK, usage patterns are likely to be a bit different. At the higher
bandwidths, usage-based charging is the norm these days with a huge differential
between domestic transit and international. This means there is a strong
temptation to charge considerably more than the onshore cost of bitflow to
recoup on the offshore which isn't very profitable once you get above a few
megabits (little or no aggregation discounts from the carriers)
ADSL at least offers the hope of high-inbound digital services like HFC was
meant to offer. Still, I'd be pretty damn content with a megabit...
-George
-- George Michaelson | connect.com.au pty/ltd Email: ggm@connect.com.au | c/o AAPT, Phone: +61 7 3834 9976 | level 8, the Riverside Centre, Fax: +61 7 3834 9908 | 123 Eagle St, Brisbane QLD 4000