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Power-grid broadband

I read an article a few days ago on ZDNET about the FCC giving at least preliminary approval to powerline-based broadband Net connections.

Interesting, but while this may make broadband more accessible (especially in outlying areas -- excellent for remote areas), there are other potential ramifications to this type of Internet distribution that I have not seen addressed:

• Who gets to do that actual providing of access? Sure, the powerline becomes the pipe, but there has to be an ISP (even if it turns out to be the power company) somewhere to peer into the network backbone, give e-mail addresses etc.


• Speaking of peering, how will this work? Will the power lines become part of Intenet, or walled off and it's just like a giant T1 line that goes just to that company's lines.


• Power surges?

Actually, at first I was worried about home networking -- if every plug is an Internet connection, why would Linksys be needed except for firewall? -- but it still requires a modem (the size of a deck of cards, the article says).

Which brings up another point. At what point will ALL modem stuff become standardized -- the way Wi-Fi has (such as on PCMCIA cards). So it's built into the computer, and there are not even small (deck of cards) modems and all?

Or built into the router? Here, I have a cable coming into a modem about the size of paperback book (bigger one). That goes -- now all via Ethernet cables - to my router, which only then goes to all machines (so all machines have the firewall, DHCP etc.).

While I understand why the modem is needed, it basically is just a huge box (that requires a power plug) that's only providing a cable-to-ethernet adaptor.