Why won BPL be economical in rural areas?
Let’s do the math for 10 people per mile of powerline with BPL… Assume: CPE cost: $500 each Repeaters: $1K each Customer Take Rate: 30% Backhaul cost: $1k per month (a T1) Repeater distance: 600 feet Feedpoint cost/misc routing equip: $5k Revenue per customer per month: $40 So: Number of repeaters needed: 8 Number of customers: 3 Nonrecurring cost: $14.5k Nonrecurring costs over two years: $604 per month Recurring Cost: $1k per month Revenue: $120 per month Mind you this is a quick back-of-a-napkin model, but it’s easy to see that rural BPL isn’t profitable.
