When I first heard about how the government was working on bringing highspeed Internet access to homes over powerlines I thought it was a brilliant idea. Not everyone has a DSL capable phone line or cable to run a cable modem, but every place I have been into had a power socket (not necessarily power though :-) so it had to be a good thing. Then I read David Coursey’s opinion and I have to back him.

The lunacy of this should be obvious: Sending radio signals (the Internet connections) over metallic conductors (the power lines) is the same as hooking a radio transmitter up to an antenna. That the result will be radio signals transmitted off the power lines to nearby and not-so-nearby radio receivers is simple physics. And, sure ’nuff the proponents admit–though only after critical studies proved it–that BPL will cause radio interference.

These types of articles allow me to thank all the people out there who are smarter than me and are able to look at the bigger picture.

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