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Current thinking on Broadband access

Having been at the wrong end of access problems in Thailand, neither of the main players (TOT, True) can offer me a phone line let alone an ADSL service, I started doing some resarch about other options.

At first I thought about a WiMax solution with an installation in a friends office that is within range of my house and has broadband access. However there is going to be a license issue and that woudl involve the NTC, difficult at best.

Now as I walk around the area my eyes are drawn upwards to the bundles of power lines that are sttung around the city. So maybe there is a real application of BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) Access here in Bangkok 2005.

BPL is simple, the bradband signal is sent over the same wire as the electricity. It works because of the different frequencies assigned to electricity and ADSL. BPL Access, the delivery to the house, steps down to between 2 and 4 Mbps as the electricity is stepped down to a consumable ~240 volts.

This is within the range of ADSL services, but today not efficient enough for IPTV, and more than suitable for VoIP traffic.

Once at the house the signal can then be directed with BPL In-House. This allows the user to send the signal around the house using the ring main. A BPL modem has a plug type interface that plugs in to the normal electricity outlet, the other end has an ethernet cable that connects into the LAN port on the PC/Notebook.

This technology would be ideal for a city like Bangkok where power is everywhere but many people are left without a telephone line, and therefore ADSL. The advantages, in an already congested city, of not having to dig up the road to lay copper or fiber speak for themselves.

Now all I need are some numbers to assign to people so VoIP-over-Power can become a reality, back to the NTC then......

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