Monday, April 25, 2005
Power Lines That Talk
Electric power lines that can "talk", i.e. provide broadband communications, may open a new door to the information age for rural America. Today, many of us have to rely on slow dial-up connections, or seek expensive high speed satellite service, because cable and telephone companies find it uneconomic to extend to us. Besides fixed wireless ( including the new WiMax) services which look very promissing, there is a another possibility for high bandwidth to every rural resident - and that is over the power company lines. We all get electric service over those wires and poles to our farms and homes ; and there is technology to allow those same wires to transmit very high bandwidth data - for internet and other services. It's called Broadband over Power Lines or "BPL".
A year ago, the Cincinnati area started an experiment in using electric power lines to deliver broadband internet services to homes. The experiment gained a serious legal step up last October when the FCC adopted rules to allow utility companies to offer these services as competitive alternatives to broadband communications services provided now by phone and cable companies. Cinergy, a midwest utilty company, is teamed with Current Communications to offer broadband (1-3 Megabits per second) services at about $30 per month to Cinergy customers, who can use it to hook up to the internet basically as easily as plugging into an electric outlet.
This article on Cinergy wired for expansion tells the story of how that experiment is turning into a major new communications business for the utility company; and, perhaps, gives us a glimpse into what might happen in our rural area if BPL proves a success there. Cinergy serves about 1.5 million users and the current BPL deployment passes about 50,000 homes and is growing to over 250,000 homes in 3 years. Although the company is not saying how many users are signing up for internet services, industry observers estimate about 15% of homes passed are signing up - and that's without a big marketing campaign in areas that already have cable and phone options.
Additionally, BPL allows the utility company to reduce its costs on current electric services or to offer new ones. Examples from the article are:
"* Automatic meter reading, which would allow the utility to monitor a home's electric usage without sending a meter-reader.
* Remote monitoring and operation of switches and transformers, alerting the utility to power failures on specific streets due to storms or equipment problems.
* Connecting and disconnecting electric service without sending out a technician.
* New programs to help consumers control electric bills."
It seems that BPL has real advantages in economy and efficiency for a utility company's regular business and opens up a new high growth customer service area. For rural areas, like NEPA, where there are not other broadband service options, that customer service growth could be quite high. Let's hope that is a strong enough incentive to get some interest from our local electric utility companies.
Oh Yes; you can talk over those power lines with BPL by using a phone connected to your computer and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology instead of a standard telephone connection. The new FCC rules permit that service over BPL and Cinergy is looking into offering it.
A year ago, the Cincinnati area started an experiment in using electric power lines to deliver broadband internet services to homes. The experiment gained a serious legal step up last October when the FCC adopted rules to allow utility companies to offer these services as competitive alternatives to broadband communications services provided now by phone and cable companies. Cinergy, a midwest utilty company, is teamed with Current Communications to offer broadband (1-3 Megabits per second) services at about $30 per month to Cinergy customers, who can use it to hook up to the internet basically as easily as plugging into an electric outlet.
This article on Cinergy wired for expansion tells the story of how that experiment is turning into a major new communications business for the utility company; and, perhaps, gives us a glimpse into what might happen in our rural area if BPL proves a success there. Cinergy serves about 1.5 million users and the current BPL deployment passes about 50,000 homes and is growing to over 250,000 homes in 3 years. Although the company is not saying how many users are signing up for internet services, industry observers estimate about 15% of homes passed are signing up - and that's without a big marketing campaign in areas that already have cable and phone options.
Additionally, BPL allows the utility company to reduce its costs on current electric services or to offer new ones. Examples from the article are:
"* Automatic meter reading, which would allow the utility to monitor a home's electric usage without sending a meter-reader.
* Remote monitoring and operation of switches and transformers, alerting the utility to power failures on specific streets due to storms or equipment problems.
* Connecting and disconnecting electric service without sending out a technician.
* New programs to help consumers control electric bills."
It seems that BPL has real advantages in economy and efficiency for a utility company's regular business and opens up a new high growth customer service area. For rural areas, like NEPA, where there are not other broadband service options, that customer service growth could be quite high. Let's hope that is a strong enough incentive to get some interest from our local electric utility companies.
Oh Yes; you can talk over those power lines with BPL by using a phone connected to your computer and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology instead of a standard telephone connection. The new FCC rules permit that service over BPL and Cinergy is looking into offering it.
