Fresh Off Muni WiFi Astroturf, How About A BPL Astroturf?

from the I've-heard-of-these-guys-before... dept

Thu, Feb 24th 2005 5:50pm — Mike Masnick

Remember the New Millennium Research Council? Those were the guys who came out with a paid-in-full report trashing muni broadband without revealing who was paying for such a report. The report even opened by taking a quote from a Techdirt analyst completely out of context. Broadband Reports has noticed that the folks at NMRC are back with a new report, this time hyping up the wonders of broadband over powerlines (BPL), despite the fact that nearly every BPL trial has ended in failure. This is a technology that has been hyped up for years (I remember in 1997 being told that it was "just around the corner) -- and yet still hasn't made the slightest dent. Of course, if the same folks who paid for the anti-muni astroturf are looking to show that there's "real competition" in the broadband space, a story about the rise of BPL might be convenient, right?

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

3 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Trish Butler, 24 Feb 2005 @ 5:50pm

BPL report
You should read the NMRC report, which is actually quite balanced. It cites both pros and cons -- progress and obstacles -- facing broadband over powerline. Also, if you listen to the streaming audio from the news event, you will notice that one of the speakers is openly skeptical about potential for BPL.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2005 @ 12:03am

counterexample.
http://www.developer.net.au/news/news+for+thought/canada's+first+broadband+over+power+lines.asp
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mike (profile), 25 Feb 2005 @ 1:17am
  
  Re: counterexample.
  That's not a counter example. That's another trial. There are lots of trials. Let's wait and see if it goes to commercial release, and then how many people actually use it -- and what they think of it.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]