Ummm, it would seem Reuters needs to hire a Technical Editor. Airwaves don't travel along power lines. Airwaves travel through... wait for it...air! It would seem the author, in his rush and lack of due diligence, failed to read and understand the AT&T and Verizon announcements and confused the two emerging Internet delivery methods. The first uses power lines (big wires) to deliver the Internet to customers in a very similar way it is now over cable and phone lines. The second, is where (and I quote with my bold underline added), Now what it looks like might happen in some areas is Internet data will be carried over the power lines out to a centralized rural location. Then it will be converted to RF (radio frequency) and broadcast "over the air" (in "airwaves") out to the endpoints (customer homes) in a similar way many cell phone towers work now (landlines to the towers, airwaves to and from the phones). Regardless this poor reporting, if it means affordable high-speed Internet access to folks who live way out in the boonies (but not totally "off-the-grid"), I'm all for it!
Thanks for that. It makes sense now. It helps to go to the source. They are using the power lines like a "transmission cable". In radio terms, the transmission cable is the cable that runs between the antenna and a receiver or transmitter (or transceiver). Disclaimer: I was a US Air Force air traffic control radio technician for 24+ years. As an old radio tech, I am interested in what they mean by "plastic" antennas. Antennas typically are made of highly conductive metals, normally copper or aluminum. Plastics typically are lousy conductors. So I suspect these "plastic" antennas actually encase a thin copper or aluminum wire antenna. Since there would be many of these antennas and RF power would be tiny (milliwatts to a few watts at most), it could be a very thin, inexpensive wire and the plastic is just a protective casing. Thanks again.
More Grid real estate. It should prove interesting just how far telecoms are able to push the envelope with this current transmission of their services.
