The system I looked at had fiber along the high voltage lines anyway, to get enough bandwidth to the neighborhood - i.e., fiber to the neighborhood, plus equipment there to put the data onto the copper. After that, each transformer requires a shunt. Therefore, each transformer requires a truck roll plus equipment to get service. ...
My understanding is that in North America, the average number of customers per transformer is about 4, while in Europe it's closer to 200, due both to the higher voltage and the different housing patterns. At 200 potential customers per transformer, it sorta makes sense, give or take the performance and RF issues. At four per transformer it's absurd. As someone else suggested, we might consider the fabulous success of HomePlug, which everyone uses to distribute Ethernet over their home power wiring. Oh, they don't? I wonder why not. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.