Bach Seat

It’s alive. It’s alive! BPL has risen from dead. Longtime readers of the Bach Seat, know the history of Broadband over Powerline. I covered it many years ago here, here, and here. Imagine my surprise when there were a number of articles popping up all over the interwebs touting mega-telecom AT&T’s (T) try at BPL 10 years after everybody else gave up on the technology.

ComputerWorld described this latest incarnation of BPL from AT&T as a low-cost, high-speed wireless internet technology. This time Broadband over Powerline relies on plastic antennas positioned along medium-voltage power lines and not through the conductive materials inside the power lines. FierceTelecom says that AT&T will attach the plastic antennas to the power lines and serve as a mesh network to distribute signals to homes and businesses. The Project AirGig low-cost plastic antennas and devices will regenerate millimeter wave (mmWave) signals. Millimeter-wave technology relies on electromagnetic waves that are longer than x-rays but shorter than radio waves (they are found in the 10 mm to 1 mm range and are also known as extremely high-frequency waves according to New Atlas. The EHF waves can be used for 4G LTE and 5G multi-gigabit mobile and fixed deployments.

John Donovan, chief strategy officer and group president of AT&T technology and operations, told FierceTelecom that Project AirGig delivers last-mile access without any new FTTH technology and is flexible enough to be configured with small cells or distributed antenna systems.

To test the technology, AT&T is looking for a place somewhere in the next year with a favorable regulatory environment, since the carrier would need to partner with an existing electric utility. John Donovan, chief strategy officer for AT&T said the trial could be in an area where existing broadband is expensive, even in the U.S.

The AirGig project relies on over 100 patents, according to an AT&T statement. There is no direct electrical connection to the power lines, although network components could receive their needed power through inductive wireless electricity from the near by power lines, AT&T Chief Technology Officer Andre Fuetsch explained to Computerworld.

AT&T said the testing will decide what frequency AirGig will use for commercial deployment, which could occur sometime around 2020 after the carrier rolls out 5G wireless. The frequency AT&T uses will affect the range of the signal and the speed, as well as whether it is over a licensed or unlicensed band. This decision is important if AT&T plans to use BPL as another weapon in its fight with Google Fiber. Earlier versions of Broadband over Powerline were incapable of delivering the Google (GOOG) promised Gigabit of Internet access.

“It’s a transformative technology that delivers low-cost and multi-gigabit speeds using power lines,” AT&T’s Donovan said, “There’s no need for enhancements for new towers, and it’s over existing infrastructure.”

AirGig has already been tested in outdoor locations on-campus settings. “We’ve had it up and running 4k video and cameras on campuses for quite some time,” Mr. Donovan said.

Besides using the AirGig technology as an alternative broadband service delivery option, for urban, rural, and under-served markets AT&T wants to convince the electrical utility industry to apply AirGig technology to their unique needs. ComputerWorld says utility companies would be able to use the technology to help spot problems on their power lines from something like a downed tree or cracks in the cable sheath.

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New Atlas points out that earlier this year, a millimeter-wave technology system set a new world record for wireless data transmission by sending data at 6 Gbps. The technology is also showing up in other applications, including heart-rate monitors, car-safety systems, and luggage scanners.

AirGig could be profitable for AT&T. If they can make a deal with an electrical company, they can avoid expensive make ready. Which Google Fiber is struggling mightily with. By using power lines, AirGig avoids the cost of digging trenches to lay fiber optic cable.

Still, questions remain about how this version of Broadband over Powerline will do in the real world.

• What impact will heavy rain, snow or ice have on the signal?
• What if a tree branch falls on a power line or the lines are swinging in the wind?
• Since mmWave transmissions need a direct line-of-sight between antennae, what happens when critters like birds or squirrels decide to perch on the antennae? Will that lead to an outage?
  

The ham radio lobby will likely be up in arms again when they find AT&T still likes the idea of BPL in the 30-300 GHz bands. The ARRL was a key player in killing BPL 1.0.

Related articles

• Millimeter Wave Technology Market Worth 4,632.8 Million USD by 2022 (prnewswire.com)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.