[AMRadio] Pix of BPL hardware on utility poles in Cincinnati

[Peter Markavage]

Phone and cell phone service are becoming so cheap today, the necessity
for a "blue/brown box" is probably not worth the time or legal
implications. With VOiP already in full swing and high speed internet
service readily available, cheap "phone service" can be just a click or
two away. High speed data transmission has a  number of checks and
balances to maintain data integrity. We're not sending data at 300 or
1200 baud anymore.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:17:16 +0000 "Donald Chester" <k4kyv at hotmail.com>
writes:
> 
> 
> >Actually this provides additional advantages to the Utility 
> Companies
> >even if you don't subscribe to the internet service. A modem could 
> be
> >hung on your electric, gas, or water meters, plugged into an AC 
> outlet,
> >and now all meter readings could be done back at their facilities 
> via the
> >BPL internet connection, eliminating the services of electric, gas, 
> or
> >water meter readers.
> 
> Wonder how long before some would develop and put on the market 
> bootleg 
> "brown boxes" -remember the "blue boxes" in the 80's that allowed 
> one to 
> illegally bypass the phone co.'s billing and make free phone calls? 
> These 
> things would take over and alter the data stream to the utility 
> company and 
> illegally reduce your bill.  Or if you happened to transmit over the 
> air at 
> the critical moment and your signal caused data loss and scrambled 
> the data 
> so that you or a near by resident erroneously got a ridiculously 
> high 
> utility bill for services you did not use.
> 
> Incidentally, Apple Computers got its start as a garage enterprise 
> that 
> produced blue boxes, and once they gained some capital, decided to 
> go legit 
> and put together the first personal computer, that started a 
> technological 
> revolution, even though the machine was extremely crude by today's 
> standards.

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