This is pretty cool. I remember hearing about this intially a couple of years ago. Would be pretty sweet if they could make it fly...

. . . . . . .
Power Lines Spark Net Access

The FCC says the same power lines that bring electricity into
consumers' homes may soon become the next pathway for high-speed
Internet access.
. . . . . . .

Man, this would be so cool if they did it. But would it mean an extra use of electricity?

<font color="cyan">COOL!!!!

What speed will that travel at?
</font>

I dont know how good this could be. There is a way to run a computer network through your house electricity lines. Unfortunately it is slow, unstable and completely unsecureable. The most minor power fluxuations can disrupt it and if your neighbor has a similar set up he can access your network as well as his own. How are they planing to get around these problems on an even larger scale?

I haven't read the article, but it has potential. The main drawbacks being that transformers isolate the network, so you would have to bridge that somehow. The main advantage being you don't need extra infrastructure to supply a communications channel.

My feeling is it wouldn't be worth it for the majority of "serious" computer users, but it might have potential to provide a free service to the poor. (Actually a major selling point, with todays society NOT having an internet connection is getting to be a liability)

wouldn't the electric signal in the cable cause for loss of bits during transmission?

The way it works is that it uses the 60hz waveform of the electricity as a carrier wave, the receiver reads the signal with an inductive pickup piggybacking on the power supply.