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Internet over power lines: a disappointed review
Published: March 21, 2008
My colleague Eric Torbenson hoped to be one of the first Dallas residents to receive Internet service over his power lines, but things haven’t exactly worked out as he’d hoped. Here, in his own words, is the story so far:
Man, I want badly to be one of the Cool Kids with Broadband through my Power Lines, the new-fangled way to get Internet in your home. I wouldn’t have ever know that such a thing existed without Andrew Smith’s reporting that Directv had picked Dallas as a test market for the stuff. When my wife and I moved into our Lake Highlands home last week, I gleefully stuck the cheap-looking plastic modem from Current Communications — that’s Directv’s partner here — into a wall socket and waited for the excitement.
And waited.
I’m still waiting one week later and about five hours of technical consulting with Directv over this. The tech folks can “see” the modem and get signals from it, but we can’t get an IP address through it to save our lives. Not sure if it’s a problem with our system or if our power box is too far away from the thing in the power pole that allows the magic to happen - no one has answers. But the tech guy told me that some BPL customer in Dallas “set the all-time speed record for data download in the city” by using the system. I suspect he’s making that up, along with his tales of “people love it and we rarely get any calls about it.”
Here’s the appeal: The modem just sticks into any power outlet and you’re good to go. And, if your’e getting the cheapest package from Directv, it’s $19.99 a month. Since I also have the television version of Directv, I get another $10 off, making the cost about $10 a month — in theory — for broadband. What’s not to like? The part where it doesn’t work.
I have to say while the actual individuals talking on the phone from Directv have been nice enough, the company’s follow-up and promises to “get someone back to you tomorrow” have been downright attrocious. Worst. Support. Ever.
Here’s the deal Directv: You’ve got until Monday to get my BPL working, or it’s back to DSL for this surfer…
