[EIDXA] Power lines are new path for high-speed Internet

[Jim Spencer]

http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwendland18e_20041018.htm
MIKE WENDLAND: Power lines are new path for high-speed Internet 

October 18, 2004

BY MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

It's described as "the third wire," a third way to get broadband 
Internet into your home besides cable and telephone DSL lines.

This one, approved last week by the Federal Communications 
Commission, uses the power lines that run past your house from your 
local electric utility company to beam an Internet signal to your 
computer.

In Michigan, Consumers Energy plans the first pilot program for about 
10,000 customers in Grand Ledge in Eaton County, probably by year's 
end. A second Michigan community yet to be selected will also be used 
to test the technology, says Consumers spokesman Jeff Holyfield.

If those trial runs are successful, the service will be expanded 
statewide, especially in areas hard to reach by traditional high-
speed Internet providers.

Called BPL, for Broadband over Power Line, the technology is being 
welcomed by Michigan's Public Service Commission.

"We're very enthused about it," says Commissioner Bob Nelson, who is 
also the chairman of the telecom committee of the National 
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions. "There are lots of 
places in the state where cable or DSL Internet isn't available. But 
everyone has a power line nearby."

Last week's action by the FCC gives a green light to widespread 
deployment of the technology by utility companies. FCC Chairman 
Michael Powell said BPL will provide "ubiquitous service to all 
Americans at affordable rates. This is groundbreaking stuff."

Not everyone is happy, though. Amateur radio operators have opposed 
the technology because they believe it will interfere with radio 
communications.

"This is very disruptive for two-way radio communications," says Jim 
Wickstrom, president of the Utica Shelby Emergency Communications 
Association, a Macomb County ham radio club of about 200 members 
that's invested money and time in the national fight against 
BPL. "It's not just ham operators that are interfered with -- so are 
military, commercial and homeland security radio service. But not 
only that, our signals can interfere with BPL."

The FCC has heard all those arguments. And although it concedes the 
concerns are valid, commissioners said last week the benefits of BPL 
outweigh interference issues, which they believe can be managed by 
technical standards.

Consumers Energy is also bullish on BPL.

"We see a great potential in this," says Holyfield. "But we will 
thoroughly test this before implementing it to make sure that it is 
safe, reliable and nondisruptive."

The technology uses low-power radio signals that are fed over the 
same lines that carry electricity to the home. A BPL modem plugs into 
a wall outlet inside the house, receives those signals from the 
outside power lines and converts them into a digital Internet 
connection with the computer.

How fast is it? Various test projects around the country have 
averaged access speeds of between 1 and 3 m.p.b.s. (megabits per 
second), roughly comparable to what most residential DSL and cable 
modem Internet hookups offer.

One of the biggest providers of BPL so far is Current Communications 
Group of Germantown, Md., which is partnering with the local utility 
in Cincinnati to provide BPL residential service starting at $29.95 a 
month. It hopes to have as many as 50,000 customers by the end of the 
year.

The closest test of BPL that's up and running is in Sault Ste. Marie, 
Ontario, where about 20 businesses are using BPL service in a program 
that the local utility hopes to roll out soon to residential 
customers.

Martin Wyatt, general manager of PUC Telecom Inc., the company 
overseeing the project, is a believer: "Power lines go where the 
phones aren't and the cable isn't."