{re: BPL will bring competition...} I am totally baffled by all the hype over BPL. What is true is the utilities would wet their pants over having same. Not for offering Internet access, but so they could read every electric meter in realtime, and do load-shedding as well. What they SEEM to be doing is trying to convince the Vulture Capitalists that BPL makes sense for 'Net access, and "By the way, as long as you're paying, we'd like to use it ourselves.." But using BPL for 'Net access is well, insane. a) It not only makes RF interference out the yingyang; it is also highly susceptible to other RF emitters confusing it. So it's "Ahh Grasshopper" ish in constantly jumping around retraining its spectrum useage, rather like a modem on a bad line. Ergo, unpredictable latency/throughput. That's OK for Jill Winecooler's email & baby picture sharing, and totally unacceptable for VOIP, XM & other music streaming, TV episode replays, YouTube, etc. b) It makes the most sense in dense neighberhoods where lots of folks share a power trasnformer. [Each one needs a $hunt installed to pass the data around the transformer.] I.e: Europe, and maybe US dense surburbia/apt houses, and such. But that's exactly where DSL & cable are already available... c) Note that the equipment installers in b) are not your average Cable Guy. They must be $killed HV power linemen in bucket trucks etc. d) It won't reach DSL/cable fiber speeds Ever. So as demand grows... -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433