Shouldn Hams be responsible for coming up with an alternate broadband solution?
Hams are merely the messengers. A good analogy is that they are the “canaries in the coal mine”. Hams cannot use their spectrum for commercial purposes, so designing an alternate over-the-air technology using ham frequencies is out of the question. The responsibility of providing a broadband solution over power lines or other mediums is not their responsibility as some have suggested. BPL is a technology created by commercial interests with profits in mind.
Hams are merely the messengers. A good analogy is that they are the canaries in the coal mine. Hams cannot use their spectrum for commercial purposes, so designing an alternate over-the-air technology using ham frequencies is out of the question. The responsibility of providing a broadband solution over power lines or other mediums is not their responsibility as some have suggested. BPL is a technology dreamed up by commercial interests with profits in mind. Some who have delusions that BPL is a humanitarian effort to deliver the Internet to huddled masses of rural folk starving for bandwidth are overly idealistic and unrealistic. This is a business with one thing in mind revenue.
