In its favor, In-house BPL can take advantage of an inside wire system that's already in place and is largely suitable. That certainly lowers the cost when compared to running Cat 5/6 wire for data communications. It also avoids issues of physical barriers to Wi-Fi connectivity, which performs best under line-of-sight conditions.
Challenges include that nagging potential for interference, not to mention brownouts and blackouts. Competition from Wi-Fi definitely will be an issue, especially given pre-N devices, which are currently availability well in advance of the release of the standard.
Into The Future: In Search of The Killer App
The future of BPL is anybody's guess, of course, but some market estimates reach $2.5 billion by 2010. In the face of competition on the from well entrenched DSL and cable modems, and future competition from developing technologies such as PON and WiMax, that number may be a bit on the optimistic side for Access BPL. In-house BPL is interesting and certainly has a market niche to exploit where buildings can't easily be rewired and the promise of HomePlug AV at 200 Mbps is pretty impressive, but 802.11 continues to evolve, with pre-N devices already on the market. But, then, the overall broadband market is huge and $2.5 billion isn't what it used to be.
In-house BPL has one really interesting application that we haven't discussed, and that may be all it needs to take off and eclipse that seemingly optimistic $2.5 billion market forecast. That killer app has to do with networking home electric appliances.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
