We shall begin the semester's edition of this article by looking at Broad Band-Over-Power line (BPL). Most of you have probably heard about the various ways that Internet Service Providers (ISP's), provide internet to clients. The speed and efficacy of each service determines its price. Dialup (Modem), Broadband (Cable), VSAT (Satellite), Radio are the most common ones. Well in another term your pocket would determine the kind of service you can afford. But for this article we shall be taking a look at BPL

What Is BPL
I bet some of you are wandering what this BPL is. This is a new technology that is yet to catch up. Even in the States it is not so popular and believe me it would probably take years before it gets to Ghana. OK, now let's take a look at BPL in more detail.

As the name suggests it is a technology that supplies Internet over Power (Electrical) line. Interesting ha. Imagine, how you can surf the internet and do all the things you love to do without the need for a telephone line, cables or any form of satellite or radio connection. All you need to do is just to connect your PC to an electrical outlet anywhere in your house. Yes that is what BPL brings to you and more.

How to Get BPL?
Well the first thing would be to get an ISP that supplies such a service. At the moment there is no company in Ghana that supplies such a service. You can call me to inform me if you hear of one and I would be glad to check it out. However this does not mean that it cannot be done. Let's look at how BPL works and then you can judge for yourself the feasibility of its implementation in this country.

The first and most important thing you need is to connect your house or office to the main power from ECG. This is not really a problem because it's readily available to anyone and everyone. The real deal is the equipment that the ISP uses to adapt and send digital internet data over the power cables. That is not all, in your home or your office more gadgets are used to protect and distribute the data as the current transforms to household levels.

In this article however we would focus our attention to the home part of this networking. BPL connection at home is slightly different from dial up which uses telephone modem and cable. The only thing is that instead of a modem or cable you would only install a power line modem. The power line modem is plugged into an electrical outlet which is then routed with an Ethernet or usb to a network hub or a PC's LAN port.

Protection is a vital thing
Transmitting electricity may not always be the safest thing to do even in this day where electrical appliances have been made safer than ever before. This then means that transmitting digital Internet data over power lines may not also be always safe. A surge protector compatible with BPL is the solution to this. Any ordinary surge protector won't work. With this you can be sure that your transmission would be safe from any dangerous power surges.

If you are the kind of person who won't spend money on just anything because it's cheap but you would rather look for efficiency and true speed, you are probably asking the question, just how fast is this kind of service? Well just to give you a feel of how fast it is, we can compare it to that of a telephone modem (dial-up) with maximum speeds of up to 3Mbs under Ideal conditions.

Feasible or not Feasible
Everything you have read so far makes it feel like it would be a great thing to introduce BPL in Ghana and you are probably wandering just why BPL is not being implemented as an alternate source of communication network. It is not all cozy with this new technology. Let's now take a look at some of the factors that are downplaying this new tech.

1. COST: from the end user point of view all is quick and easy. However before the ISP can be able to install a BPL, a lot of work would have to be done. By this I mean installing equipments which if you remember would help transmit the digital Internet data over power lines. This is done outside the home and is costly.
2. BPL, some argue has the capability of interfering with radio signals as well as some emergency radio services. On a power pole tower aerial cables for BPL are thicker and they are not shielded. This means that it has the potential of radiating unwanted frequencies.
3. Besides the fact that BPL can interfere with other radio services it is also prone to interference itself, just as Wi-Fi is. Simple home appliances such as hair dryers and even light bulbs have the potential of interfering with BPL.
Despite these few potential problems which off course can be taken care of, there is another area where BPL can be potentially applied as a benefit, a form of side attraction besides its use of providing Internet. This area is of particular interest to me because of its potential of being applied to help solve our energy crises.

HOW THIS CAN BE DONE
Simply using BPL the ECG can remotely fix and monitor power outages. Instead of sending personnel to the field to fix unknown problem, BPL can be used to do this from say an office if properly applied.
Besides this now that we in Ghana are making so much noise about cutting down on the amount of power consumed, BPL can be used to check on people who reduce their power consumption on say peak periods and appropriately reward them with Price Cuts i.e. Making them pay less than usual as an incentive to encourage more people to cut down their power consumption especially at peak periods.