February huh? I’ll believe it when I see it.

Tontoe E. seems to know much more about this than we do, but you would be able to use the Ntelos service several miles out from the tower, maybe more depending on your line of site and what type of antenna you use. The new technology and new equipment allows much greater distances than in the past.

Adding telephony equipment (a phone set or computer modem of your choice) at the customer end of the incumbent telephone company’s network has been decided long ago; this is permitted specifically by law and practice. Adding telephony equipment that has DIRECT contact with the 19,000 kilovolt AC distribution power lines has never been established or approved in Verizon until recently.

Putting the cart before the horse is always a bad practice in any business; IBEC’s failure was in assuming that what happened with a phone company in Alabama would apply to all phone companies in all states. This proved not to be the case.

While I commend Nellysford in being proactive in their quest for broadband penetration (it’s well known that Verizon has been less than diligent in establishing universal broadband in light of their focus on FiOS fiber-to-the-home network service), IBEC customers must accept that serious safety issues were raised by Verizon employees. Namely, would YOU feel comfortable in working on a telephone network which has DIRECT contact with 19,000 kilovolts of AC power? What if IBEC said, “It’s OK, we’ve done it in other places and it appears to be safe.”?

The nature of the existing copper telephone network is designed to efficiently conduct electricity (this is what powers the analog signals that deliver voice service to your home on a land line), there is no protection equipment or apparatus devices in place that is designed to shut down the ENTIRE telephone network in the event of AC power contact. Instead, devices are installed at main telephone offices and at ALL customer locations that will protect these locations until the problem can be repaired. Until that time, when there is AC contact to the telephone network it becomes energized with deadly efficiency. A telephone employee working several miles down the road can become electrocuted if AC contact occurs elsewhere. In fact, all telephone repair technicians carry devices which alert them to the presence of AC power contact in the network before they touch it. These devices have saved the lives of many employees.

It is hardly surprising that Verizon expressed reservations concerning offering a connection point to IBEC’s equipment which has a direct connection to the AC power network. It has nothing to do with stonewalling the endeavor since Verizon is not competing with IBEC in the BPL targeted areas, anyway. It also has nothing to do with finances since Verizon (and IBEC) will profit from the sell of T-1 circuits that transport the IBEC broadband signals. Deployment of BPL will benefit both Verizon and IBEC, neither company has a interest in turning away these profits.

The delays with the BPL deployment stemmed directly as a result of IBEC’s presumption that Verizon would blindly believe and trust that this particular equipment would be safe to their employees and safe for their telephone network without proper testing and documentation. That IBEC proceeded with accepting BPL deposits before solving all of the necessary telephone regulatory requirements and specific Verizon requirements was a poor judgment call on their part and should not be construed as a fault of Verizon.

On a side note, the new Ntelos cell tower being installed near the Martin’s Store substation will offer speeds over 1mb per second with latencies of around 50 milliseconds. In addition, the Ntelos wireless broadband (and presuming the eventual Verizon Wireless broadband service from this location) will offer the possibility of portability with a USB EVDO antenna or a PC EVDO card. For users located further from away from this tower, there are EVDO antenna boosters which will make fringe locations actually viable for wireless broadband. (Search the internet for EVDO antenna boosters.) Ntelos is currently offering their wireless broadband service for 40 dollars a month for unlimited service which is a better deal than both IBEC’s BPL and Verizon Wireless’ broadband (which has a bandwidth cap of 5Gb per month.) In addition, once the Martin’s Store cell site is up and running, Ntelos will allow you to try out their wireless broadband for 30 days and cancel your subscription without penalty if it does not work when you get home and try it out.

Sincerely,
Tonto E., a third party observer.