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Broadband for everyone!

A friend of mine is a telecoms engineer and I recall him saying that the telecom companies were praying the internet/power line technology was sat on until they could get their own infrastructure more established and they had time to plant in the minds of the consumer that telecoms=internet. This must have been at the very least 6 years ago, so I guess they got their wish.
 
Anything to keep the prices down. In my area there is only one cable modem provider and DSL is very limited. They are currently raising the price of my cable modem to $57 a month which I may deam to be too expensive. I sure hope theres a DSL provider I can jump to. Last time I looked into it there was no guarantee of DSL and the cost was $50 a month for a much slower connection then my cable.
 
Well this especially interested me since I grew up in a very rural area, where this type of technology could really help communications. Right now many areas are stuck with 56k and less service. I am lucky they have Cable internet service here in town, I don't know how I could go back to dial-up.

I know for several years, our REA's have been using meter reading technology where the meters are read at the main offices right over the powerlines, so I would think communication is very possible on the power lines.
 
this sort of thing has been in testing and theory stages for a couple of years now... but as i recall it was always cost-prohibitive in the new equipment needed (repeaters at every pole, upgrade old cables, etc)... if it's closer to becoming a reality now i'm glad... i just don't get my hopes up.

there needs to be some serious competition in the broadband market to drive prices down. on my cable company's new plan, if you OWN a cable modem, you pay $5 MORE than leasing one from them. that's bloody outrageous. comes out to be something like $55, which isn't great considering reliability is low and so are speeds :/

maybe it's better in bigger cities... we're only 300,000 or so... so there's not many telecommunication companies...

pnw
 
I sure wish that the price of DSL would decrease from the current price of $49.95. I've read articles in the Boston Globe from experts saying that DSL is too expensive. That there is no reason for them not to decrease the price. Hopefully with increase competition and avaialbilty the will lower prices soon!
 
i agree totally. my DSL right now costs 59$ a month, and thats just outrageous. problem is my cheap old apts (actually they are well maintained rather nice apts) never got wired for Time Warner Cable, so i cant get a cable modem...in reality there is no competition for broadband here. besides that, you couldnt even get the shady satelite broadband...no dishes attached to the pretty buildings:rolleyes: oh well, im waiting (and hoping) for them to blanket the montrose/riveroaks area with WiFi :p
 
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