Free Republic

EUROPEAN LEAGUE QUALIFYING AND RELEGATION The top 3 teams in the Barclay's Premiere League (BPL) qualify directly to UEFA Champions League group play. The BPL champions will be a seeded team in EUFA. The 4th place team qualifies for a UEFA play-in series against a club to be determined by draw among other qualifiers. The winner of the home-and-home series proceeds to UEFA group play. The 5th place team qualifies for Europa League play, entering the competition at the play-off stage. The Capital One Cup (League Cup) winner qualifies for Europa, entering at the third qualifying stage. Since the Capital...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satellite television provider DirecTV Group Inc. may test delivering high-speed Internet service through power lines in a major U.S. city in the next year, its chief executive said on Monday. DirecTV and others are talking to companies that specialize in providing broadband through the electrical grid, Chief Executive Chase Carey said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York. "We're not the only ones talking to them," Carey said, in response to a question on whether DirecTV would consider a test in a major city. "I think you'll see some meaningful tests...

Wiring an old hotel for wireless Internet access can easily cost more than $1 million in construction and cabling costs, and that doesn't even factor in the lost revenue when rooms are unavailable due to the work. But some hotels have found a way around that problem using power line communications, or PLC, products, from TELKONET Inc. The company's technology, also known as "broadband over power line," is installed in the basement of a building and connects to its existing electrical system. To get wired broadband access, guests simply plug a modem into any electrical outlet. "It did not make...

TXU and CURRENT Communications to Create Nation's First Multipurpose Smart Grid Texas-based utility TXU Electric Delivery, the nation’s sixth large electric transmission and distribution company and a subsidiary of TXU Corp., and CURRENT Communications Group, LLC have announced an agreement to transform TXU’s power distribution network into the nation’s first broadband-enabled ‘smart’ electric grid. Key elements of the announcement include the following: CURRENT will construct a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) network to serve more than two million TXU Electric Delivery customers in the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and in other Texas communities. Overlaid on the existing electric distribution...

Internet noise threatens emergency radio 10:31 14 January 2005 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition Barry Fox After the tsunami hit Sri Lanka on 26 December, Victor Goonetilleke, head of the island's amateur radio society, delivered a short-wave radio set and two 12-volt car batteries to the prime minister's emergency headquarters in Colombo. At the same time, three of his friends drove through the devastation to Hambantota, on the hard-hit south-east coast, where they set up another battery-powered short-wave radio. For two days, while the military struggled to restore electricity supplies and phone lines, the prime minister was able to...

FCC commissioners yesterday unanimously approved rules for broadband over power line (BPL) technology, which policymakers hope will provide the elusive third broadband access line into most U.S. homes and reduce—or eliminate—the need to regulate the broadband industry. Certainly the most outspoken opposition to BPL has come from the amateur radio community, which has claimed that BPL will create interference with its operations. FCC Chairman Michael Powell called amateur radio operators “an important resource” and expressed hope that the rules the FCC has created will protect them, but he said obstructing the deployment of BPL is not an option. “The potential...

ARRL Takes Issue with Public Funding of New York BPL Project The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 24 June 11, 2004 The ARRL has questioned the propriety of a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) grant from public funds to promote a broadband over power line (BPL) project. The project is believed to be the BPL field test now under way in Briarcliff Manor. The Westchester County community is just north of New York City. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, on June 10 faxed a strongly worded letter to NYSERDA President Peter R. Smith asserting that acknowledged...

FCC Extends BPL Reply Comments Filing Deadline NEWINGTON, CT, May 27, 2004--The FCC has extended the deadline to file reply comments in its broadband over power line (BPL) proceeding, ET Docket 04-37, from Tuesday, June 1, to Tuesday, June 22. The Commission released its BPL Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) February 23, and the initial comment deadline passed May 3. The FCC acted on a request from the National Antenna Consortium and the Amherst Alliance (NAC/Amherst) for a much longer filing deadline extension. The NAC/Amherst petition cited the anticipated release of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Phase...