Now that I've read the damned article, I'm really pissed.
This reporter became a PR flack for the power industry,
and depicted hams in the worst possible light.
There's no interference in 8 block long penn-yan NY, so
there's no problem anywhere. Great logic.
Long proven market theory, developed at Harvard by Ted Levitt
relates profitability and market share. For a late entry
to a market already served by multiple cable sources, expanding
DSL, and satellite services, the opportunity to win significant
share is very small. And it's very expensive to get there.
Only with a 'disruptive' technology, that is, one which enjoys
a significant economic advantage, will the power companies be able
to demonstrate reasonable returns for their investors. An examination
of the various commercially available and proposed distribution systems
will reveal rather convoluted and somewhat complex systems using fiber
and 2.4GHz WLAN as well as power lines. I have difficulty seeing this as
'disruptive', except to users of the spectrum.
i.e. aircraft navigation, public safety communications, shortwave
broadcasters,
the military, and, oh, yes, the amateur community.
The entire BPL argument rests on their ability to reconfigure some of their
distribution in frequency space, to accomodate interference complaints. The
problem is that they're not agile enough to do it timely.
Beyond that, the power industry has been looking for growth markets to
pursue,
so they can compete in capital markets with higher growth investments. It's
the result of government policy encouraging competition in the power
business,
which historically has been a regulated monopoly. We might debate separate
ownership
of the outside plant and power generation, but I think it will be shown to
be
a bad idea, in time. Similarly, it makes no sense to encourage the power
industry to go
into telecommunications, which is going through its own Sturm und Drang.
It's a bad idea for the FCC to be making industrial policy.
Hmmm. This may have the making of an op-ed piece. Wonder if I can get it
published?
Jim Jarvis, n2ea
jimjarvis@ieee.org
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