[Paham] BPL IN FLA?

Mon, 8 Mar 2004 18:17:04 -0500

Here is the complete article for those having trouble accessing it:

de W3BV

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/nationworld/sns-ap-power-line-internet,
1,5465341.story
Utility to Offer High-Speed Internet

By LISA CORNWELL
Associated Press Writer

March 3, 2004, 12:39 PM EST

CINCINNATI -- A division of utility Cinergy Corp. plans to offer high-speed
Internet service over its power lines, letting customers connect by simply
plugging a computer modem into existing electrical outlets.

The idea of broadband service over power lines, or BPL, has been around for
some time, but this appears to be the first large-scale rollout of the
technology by a major utility.

"There have been several utilities working on this quietly and doing pilot
programs," said Alan Shark, president of the Power Line Communications
Association, an industry trade group. "Everyone has been very cautious in
deploying this technology, but I think the demand will be incredible."

Cinergy Broadband LLC is teaming up with Current Communications Group LLC, a
Germantown, Md.-based technology company, to offer the service in sections
of Cincinnati this year. Plans call for an eventual expansion into Kentucky
and Indiana; Cinergy hopes to market the service to 55,000 of its 1.5
million customers this year.

A second venture will bring the technology to smaller municipal and
cooperatively owned power companies, covering 24 million customers across
the United States.

The parties are committing more than $70 million to the ventures.

"We had very positive results from a pilot program that we began last
January in about 100 homes and about 75 percent said they were very
satisfied and willing to sign up for commercial service," said Cinergy
spokesman Steve Brash.

Tim Barhorst, 51, of Cincinnati, was in the test program and is sold on the
service.

"I have a home office and I have used DSL and cable, but I would choose BPL
over them," said Barhorst, a technology consultant. He said the speed is
comparable to the high-speed cable services and faster than DSL. "It has
been very reliable and is the most cost-efficient for me."

Cinergy and Current Communications believe that the new technology offers
several advantages over DSL and cable modem service, including the fact that
no professional installation or additional wiring in a home is needed.

The service will be provided at three pricing levels, from 1 megabit per
second for $29.95 a month to 3 megabits per second for $39.95 a month.

Customers will get one free modem, which must be plugged into an electrical
socket for the system to work. Additional modems for multiple outlets will
cost $30 to $40 each.

One major broadband rival, Time Warner Cable, claimed not to fear the
competition. Spokesman Keith Cocozza said his company could offer better
value by bundling several services together, such as Internet access with
cable TV and phone service.

The Federal Communications Commission has said it will begin developing
rules for the technology as another way to provide broadband access to
consumers. FCC Chairman Michael Powell said last year that because every
building has a power plug, it "could simply blow the doors off the provision
of broadband."

However, BPL has its critics, including the American Radio Relay League, a
national association of amateur radio operators. The group contends that
power line data transmissions will interference with radio tuned to the same
frequency.

David Sumner, the league's chief executive, said that can cause problems for
not only ham radio operators, but also short-wave broadcasts and military,
public safety and government communications.

Cinergy's Brash, however, said interference has not been a problem.

In general, here's how the technology works. Data travels on medium-voltage
wires in the power grid, getting transferred to fiber-optic or telephone
lines to skip disruptive high-voltage wires.

Because signals can only make it so far before breaking apart, electronic
devices on the power line reamplify packets of data. More elaborate
techniques detour the signals around transformers before the data gets
zipped into homes via the regular electric current.

Matt Davis, director of broadband services for the Yankee Group, a
Boston-based research firm, is concerned that BPL technology has not
developed sufficiently to be competitive and drive costs down. He also
thinks it will struggle to compete with the bundled packages offered by
cable and phone companies.

"I don't want to shoot it down, but there are some key things that are
stacked against them," he said.

Karen George, research director for Primen, a Boulder, Colo.-based research
company that tracks the retail energy market, says utilities have emphasized
that providing Internet service will be important in underserved rural and
suburban markets.

"The question is whether utilities will be able to make money off of it,"
she said.

* __

On the Net:

http://www.cinergy.com
Copyright C 2004, The Associated Press

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 8:52 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]
Subject: [Paham] BPL IN FLA?

Juno-based Florida Power & Light Co., which provides electric power to more
than 4 million subscribers throughout the state, has been studying
broadband-over-power line technology for more than a year, but still hasn't
made a
decision on applying it.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-sbbroadband07mar07,0,7783021.
st
ory?coll=sfla-business-front

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