[ale] Networking with power lines??

[Joe Morris]

Hey, saw this today -- pretty strange

October 8, 1997
Canada's Northern Telecom (Nortel) and Britain's Norweb Communications
today unveiled new technology allowing reliable, low-cost, high-speed
access to the Internet through the domestic electricity supply.

In a move heralding the first competition between electricity companies
and telecommunications carriers, the two groups said their patented
technology would allow power firms to convert their infrastructures
into information access networks.

Having reduced electrical interference on power lines, the companies
said they could shunt data--and possibly voice--over power lines into
the home at up to 1MB per second.

This is up to ten times faster than ISDN, the fastest currently
available speed for domestic computer users.  Although it is slower
than rival ADSL technology being developed by British
Telecommunications, which upgrades copper wires, Norweb and Nortel's
technology is much cheaper for operators to install.

The rest of the story's at:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/daily/data/1097/971008155629.html
-- 
  Joe Morris, SysAdmin and Not Insane
  "Honey, they're in *everybody's* eggs"  --firesigns