Phone Line Free Isp??

ttoli

HELLO
I'M A BIT NEW AT THIS GAME BUT AM SURE THAT I HEARD AN AD ON THE RADIO FOR AN ISP THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE A PHONE LINE,ONLY MAINS ELECTRICITY. WAS I HEARING RIGHT OR AM I A SPACE CADET? :eek:

Mattjimf

i know scottish and southern electric were trialing this in Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen and somewhere in the south of england, but that was at least 4 years ago, and i haven't heard anymore since.

dalbmeister

I think this is the company advertising on the radio... http://www.mynow.co.uk/

I don't think they have a lot of coverage yet, but worth a look.

2ax

Mattjimf wrote:

i know scottish and southern electric were trialing this in Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen and somewhere in the south of england, but that was at least 4 years ago, and i haven't heard anymore since.

the trial was in about 4 places in Scotland, and one in Hampshire.

It had struck me too that it had all gone quiet, but I just searched a bit, and although the SSE sites seem to have nothing, I found

http://www.blinkbroadband.co.uk/
blink is brought to you by Scottish Hydro Electric and Southern Electric

It still seems to be running as a trial in about 4 places in Scotland and one in Hampshire, but different ones ...

added - I've just found the Powerline product name still continues in Stonehaven and Crieff.

It seems to be going rather slowly, and the other noticeable thing is that tariff v speed is going in the other direction from telephone broadband products. I'm sure when it first came out, it was 2MB/s for £20 or £25, which was highly competitive then, especially as you could consider voip for the phone and cut off the phoneline.

John_Gray

The ISP Review has a recent article on this.

Also, I read recently that one locality in the US had trialled, but abandoned, internet access over power lines. This was not because the technology didn't work, but because they couldn't see any way of making money out of it, with all the other (cheaper) methods being available...
Later: I've just found the article I was referring to.

John

ttoli

Really wish I could remember the name of the company,they were aiming the service at students who moved around alot and I think it was offered at £10 per month.
Any ideas? poss on (Smooth FM) in the south east.

2ax

I think it's much more likely that you were hearing about a wireless access. So-called wi-max will have larger access zones per transmitter than wi-fi, and some operators are starting up. Also, in some areas there are meshes of many wi-fi zones, but these tend to be community based rather than commercial, so less likely to be advertised on the radio.