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by davepage 4021 days ago
Shortwave listeners and amateur radio folks were upset about powerline internet: http://www.arrl.org/broadband-over-powerline-bpl

From an engineering standpoint, sending broadband over the power infrastructure is seriously ugly, because the SNR is poor, shielding is poor, and spectral distortion is high. Power lines were never designed to be constant impedance, low loss and shielded for broadband frequencies. Due to all the impairments, the transmit power must be relatively high, and coupled with the poor shielding, interference with legitimate radio users is inevitable.

1 comments

Shortwave listeners and amateur radio folks compared to comcast and time warner...different league...
Well, maybe. From a regulatory perspective, the radio users have more FCC clout than insouciant interference sources like Comcast and TW, neglecting whatever regulatory capture may exist.