NMRC Release of Report, "Powering the Broadband Market in 2005 and Beyond: Views on the Emergence of Broadband Over Power Line Technology (BPL)

Telenews Event: February 24, 2005

This NMRC white paper examines the current landscape in the broadband over power line (BPL) industry and finds that many experts believe 2005 could be a year of significant growth for the technology. Trials and actual commercial deployments of BPL systems are on the rise, with over 20 projects in operation in 2004 and more expected to come online in 2005. Challenges remain, such as potential radio interference, but regulators and industry watchers see a bright future for BPL.

FEBRUARY 28, 2005

Power Lines May Be Next Connection to Internet

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2005/02/28/a3bz_pg3BPL_0228.html

Palm Beach Post
By Kristi Swartz

Until recently, another method of Internet connection was literally way above people's heads: Utility wires.

The concept is known as Broadband over Power Lines, or BPL for short, in which power wires serve as a mode of transportation for e-mail and Internet traffic.

Utilities nationwide ran 20 such projects to about 250,000 homes last year, said Allen Hepner, executive director of the Washington-based New Millennium Research Council, which released a report about BPL last week.

"BPL is becoming a much bigger factor in 2005," said Joseph Fergus, president and chief executive of COMtek, which owns and operates the nation's first citywide BPL network. The network, in Manassas, Va., connects with more than 1,000 homes and businesses, Fergus said.

BPL can operate at speeds comparable to high-speed Internet, said Robert Olsen, an electrical engineering professor at Washington State University.

That means the technology could be a good way to quickly bring high-speed Internet into rural areas.

"This does provide for other areas that are on the wrong side of the digital divide," said Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant of Harris Interactive, based in Rochester, N.Y.

It's likely that BPL will be coming to a utility pole near you, but it's going to be a while. Florida Power & Light Co. has been testing the technology and is trying to determine its value to customers as well as to the utility, FPL spokeswoman Karen Vissepo said.

"We'll put together a strategy based on these findings, and we'll take it from there," she said.

New Reports Suggest 2005 As Critical to Growth of BPL

Telephony
By Ed Gubbins

The New Millennium Research Council, a Washington think tank, convened a national press conference last week to discuss its new white paper, which asks the question, "Is 2005 the year of BPL?" Though the 16-page report was vague on what it might mean to be "the year" of broadband over powerline, it concluded, "Many technology experts point to 2005 as a time when BPL can achieve strong growth, demonstrate success in existing deployments and expand into many parts of the country."

Regardless of the answer, more people are posing the same question. A Yankee Group report published last month claimed the next 12 to 24 months are "critical for the future of BPL." John Joyce, CEO of BPL provider Ambient, called 2005 a "pivotal" year for the technology.

"[BPL] is going to become a much bigger factor across the U.S. during 2005," said Joe Fergus, CEO of ComTek, which in April will complete the country's first city-wide commercial BPL deployment in the D.C. suburb of Manassas, Va. More than 10% of the homes passed by ComTek's Manassas BPL network have signed up for the $29 500 kb/s symmetrical service, Fergus said, with another 1300 people on a waiting list. By April, he expects to have 20% to 30% penetration among the town's 12,500 homes and 2500 businesses.

"Our low price resulted in the leading [cable] competitor dropping its broadband prices by 55%," Fergus said. "I think you'll see a lot more of that."

ComTek also will begin deploying voice-over-IP technology soon, he said, and hinted that another announcement in the coming weeks will signify that BPL deployment "is taking place literally from coast to coast."

There are more than 20 BPL trials or deployments in the U.S., and the NMRC expects that number to grow this year. The sweet spot for BPL, Fergus said, is towns like Manassas with between 25,000 and 100,000 people and only one or two existing broadband providers.

While experts say the variable speed of BPL's shared architecture is comparable to, but not greater than, DSL and cable, Fergus said new BPL gear from Mitsubishi and Sony will offer 100 Mb/s and 200 Mb/s this summer, opening the door to video service. Still, the Yankee Group doesn't expect an IEEE standard for BPL gear to be final until mid- to late 2006. And utilities offering broadband would have to play catch-up to telcos and cable players that will soon have triple-play bundles.

Recent regulatory moves have helped thaw the sector. In October, the FCC approved rules to prevent interference from BPL signals (though some experts say they're not yet well-defined) and committed to creating policies that would fan the flames of BPL deployment. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners released the first report of its BPL task force this month to educate state regulators on the subject. And President George W. Bush even stressed his support of the technology last year.

Technological and regulatory issues aside, the biggest question remaining is whether utilities will choose to deploy BPL, overcoming their conservative cultures and their reluctance to enter the telecom industry again after so many failed attempts in recent years. "Is it ‘the year?’" asked Barry Goodstadt, a vice president and customer loyalty consultant for Harris Interactive, who testified to the consumer demand for BPL on the NMRC's panel. "The way utilities operate, I can't see this being ‘the year.’"

BPL

Turn-ons

Cuts costs by using existing infrastructure Rural service possible Could allow remote meter reading

Turn-offs

Rare new technology means high opex, long installation No standards, few built-in management tools Utilities late to broadband market Rural service expensive Interference concerns

FEBRUARY 25, 2005

Study: Powerline broadband set to grow in 2005
Emerging technology is ready for commercial rollout

InfoWorld, PC World, The Industry Standard
By Grant Gross

Broadband customers looking for an alternative to cable-modem or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service may not have long to wait for broadband over powerline service (BPL), according to a white paper published Thursday by a technology-focused research group.

After more than 20 BPL trials across the U.S. in 2004 and more expected this year, BPL is ready for commercial rollout and "primed for real growth," according to the paper published by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC), a Washington, D.C., group made up of scholars and telecommunications experts. The group's report is an attempt to examine the BPL market without taking sides or recommending policy, said Allen Hepner, NMRC's executive director.

"Broadband over powerline technology is getting more and more attention today," Hepner said during a press conference. "There are a number of experts who suggest that this could be the time the technology begins its emergence as a viable competitor in the broadband market."

BPL supporters, including members of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), have championed the technology as giving consumers more broadband choices. By modifying existing electrical lines, BPL vendors are able to transmit data at speeds similar to cable or DSL, and some advocates of the technology see BPL as a way to bring broadband to rural areas now underserved by cable or DSL.

In October 2004, the FCC approved a set of rules designed to limit BPL interference to other radio frequency devices such as amateur radios. But groups such as the American Radio Relay League continue to protest rollouts of BPL, saying BPL transmitters cause significant interference to ham radios.

Despite the protests, it's estimated that more than 250,000 U.S. households already can choose BPL service, Hepner said. Included in those numbers is an ongoing citywide rollout in Manassas, Virginia, through Communication Technologies, called COMTek.

In July, the company, based in Chantilly, Virginia, received a 10-year franchise from the city to provide citywide BPL service. More than 10 percent of the homes passed so far have signed up for COMTek's service, and by April, the company's BPL service will be available to all of the city's 12,500 homes and 2,500 businesses, said Joseph Fergus, COMTek's president and chief executive officer.

The company has a waiting list in Manassas of about 1,300 people, and it hopes to eventually win the business of 20 percent to 30 percent of the homes and businesses in the city, Fergus said. BPL is "moving beyond theoretical stage," he said.

"COMTek is in the business of commercial deployment of BPL, not the technology trial and not merely service pilots," Fergus said. "What I'm excited about today is that BPL has arrived. It is out there in commercial deployment, and it's being embraced by consumers."

While some commentators have called BPL a third broadband wire, Fergus called it the first wire, because electrical lines came to most U.S. homes before telephone and cable lines. "Now that millions of Americans are abandoning their traditional phone lines for wireless cell phones and cable for satellite TV, it may mean that the electricity coming into your home will be the last wire," he said. "We certainly don't have to worry about the infrastructure we use for BPL going anywhere anytime soon."

Two other speakers at the NMRC raised questions about BPL's future. While BPL has the potential to serve 13 million U.S. households in the next three to five years, interference problems and a reluctance from many electric companies to offer new services may slow its development, said Barry Goodstadt, vice president at market research firm Harris Interactive.

A handful of BPL trials in Europe and elsewhere have been shut down because of interference problems, added Robert Olsen, an electrical engineering professor at Washington State University. While the FCC has set down rules about interference, those rules have not yet been challenged in the real world, he added.

Interference is "the real wild card," Olsen said.

The NMRC white paper is at http://www.newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/bpl_report022405.pdf.

Communications Daily, Washington Internet Daily

Broadband over power line (BPL) could hit $4.5 billion revenue annually in 3-5 years if power utilities overcome their skittishness, said Barry Goodstadt, vp of Harris Interactive. He said surveys conducted by the company had shown that at $30 monthly, more than 13 million households would adopt the technology over DSL or cable modem if utilities delivered the service in a reasonable time.

In a telephone news conference to discuss a BPL report released by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC), Goodstadt said BPL provides a platform for utilities to compete with telephone companies by providing VoIP. The challenge for utilities, which have run into trouble previously trying to move into telecom, is to develop a business case for BPL, he added.

BPL trials have shown that the technology can provide data rates comparable with DSL or cable modem, said Robert Olsen of Wash. State U. Some reports that BPL can provide speeds much higher than DSL or cable are "overly optimistic," he added, saying that would require too much investment. On interference, he said he believed BPL operators could comply with limits set by the FCC for noise levels. However, the Commission's requirement that BPL operators not pose harmful interference to licensed users is a wild card, Olsen said, because the operational definition of harmful interference hasn't been established by the FCC. The Commission hasn't had a test case that could let it define harmful interference, he added.

BPL has a waiting list of 1,200 customers in Manassas, Va., said Joseph Fergus, pres. of COMTek, the service provider in the city. He said the local cable provider had cut its rate 55% after BPL was made available for $29.95 a month. He said COMTek would pass 12,500 homes by April, with a 20-30% penetration rate. The company would soon offer VoIP service, he added.

The NMRC report said utilities had a daunting task competing on price and quality and proving the technology is "better, cheaper and faster." Doing that would entail costs that are too high for utilities' business plans, it said. While BPL could provide service to rural areas, the report said, that involves the installation of multiple repeaters for signals to be carried over long distances.

With Mitsubishi, Sony and others set to enter the BPL device market in 2005 repeaters can be placed much further apart than the current 1,000 feet, said Fergus.
Policy Group Hails 2005 as Year of BPL

TR Daily
By Lynn Stanton

This may be "the year of BPL," according to a report from the New Millennium Research Council that sees "a number of signs" that broadband over power line technology could begin to emerge "as a viable competitor in the broadband market" in 2005.

"During the past two years, the commercial and media perspectives on BPL in the United States have evolved from categorizing the technology as ‘almost ready’ to ‘really here,’" the NMRC said in its "Powering the Broadband Market in 2005 and Beyond" report, released yesterday.

Market research by Harris Interactive "has shown significant consumer interest in this technology," Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant at Harris Interactive, said yesterday during a teleconference panel discussion of the report hosted by NMRC. "At $30 a month, we would expect about 13 million households to adopt this technology, assuming it’s delivered in a reasonable time," he said, adding that the research found a greater willingness to switch from digital subscriber line (DSL) service or cable modem service to BPL than to switch between the more established technologies.

Mr. Goodstadt attributed that willingness in part to BPL’s plug-and-play technology, while fellow panelist Joseph E. Fergus cited BPL’s lower price relative to cable modem service, its provision over a medium - the electric grid - that he said consumers trust, and the lack of a requirement for additional wiring. Mr. Fergus is the president and chief executive officer of COMTek, a BPL company that owns and operates the commercial BPL system operating in Manassas, Va., over the municipal electric network. The NMRC report profiles COMTek, along with Ambient, which has deployed BPL service in a portion of New York City, working with Consolidated Edison.

The plug-and play aspect of BPL "has been cited by industry experts as potentially attractive to those customers who currently do not subscribe to broadband" from DSL, cable modem, or other providers, the NMRC report says. It also cites the symmetrical transmission speeds of BPL as a factor that distinguishes it from DSL and cable modem services, "which provide faster download speeds but slower uploads. DSL speeds range between 800 [kilobits per second] and 1.5 [megabits per second], while cable modems provide approximately 3 Mbps. BPL trials have show similar speed capability and experts expect that next generation technology will allow up to 100 Mbps transmissions over the medium voltage wires, which translates to between 10 and 30 Mbps available to the end user."

However, panelist Robert Olsen, a professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University, cautioned that those who claim that BPL can provide data rates that are much higher than DSL or cable modem service "are overly optimistic."

Mr. Fergus, however, predicted a bright future for BPL. "We look at BPL not as the third wire, but as the first wire. After all, most homes were wired for electricity before being wired for telephony or cable TV. And now that consumers are turning to satellites [for TV and abandoning landlines for] wireless telephony, it may well be the last wire," he said. Although he would provide no details, he said COMTek would "make an announcement in the coming weeks that will be another indication that BPL commercial deployment is taking place coast to coast."

Mr. Goodstadt suggested the major challenge facing BPL could be electric utilities’ own lack of resolution. "Will they roll it out?" is the big question, he said, recalling that a number of electric utilities have been burned in recent years in their attempts to enter the more traditional telephony business.

The report can be downloaded at www.thenmrc.org.

REPORT: 2005 May Be Big For Access Over Power Lines

National Journal's Technology Daily By Chloe Albanesius

High-speed Internet access over power lines could emerge as a viable telecommunications competitor in 2005, according to a report released Thursday by the New Millennium Research Council. Broadband over power lines (BPL) is "getting more and more attention" despite it being a "relatively little-understood technology," Allen Hepner, the council's executive director, said via teleconference. The council conducts research focused primarily on telecommunications and technology.

Some 20 BPL projects were operational in 2004, and more are expected in 2005, the report said. An October 2004 FCC decision that gave BPL an emerging regulatory framework also helped solidify the technology as a viable market competitor, the report said.

There has been "significant interest" in BPL, and the technology has the potential to earn up to $4.5 billion, said Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant for Harris Interactive. The service also could provide a platform for Internet telephony, which would put "electrical utilities in the business of competing directly with telephone companies."

Detractors of the technology have cited possible interference with licensed users over the same spectrum as a concern. But Robert Olsen, a professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University, said numerical limits for BPL signal strength set by the FCC should quash interference fears.

"I believe BPL can meet those limits," and negotiations between the FCC and providers are going on now to reach them, he said. One issue is that the FCC has not yet had a test case to define harmful interference, Olsen said. International examples are likewise limited, with England and Germany shutting some BPL efforts and Japan only just lifting a moratorium on the technology.

Olsen also cautioned that reports of BPL being able to provide faster service than competing broadband technologies could be misleading.

"Despite the fact that there have been suggestions that you can get higher data rates on BPL, these are overly optimistic," he said. "The bottom line is that you get comparable data rates [as other telecom providers] but not a whole lot more."

Researchers pointed to the security features possible with BPL as a selling point. BPL devices could alert utilities to possible failures in the power grid, as well as provide monitoring of substations and other utility buildings, the report said.
Analysis: Slow start for power broadband

United Press International
By Hil Anderson

The once-futuristic idea of electricity lines serving as a gateway to the Internet has become a reality, although the technology has yet to demonstrate the kind of breakthrough advantages over telephone and cable television services that will grab the attention of demanding consumers.

A report released Thursday predicted that 2005 might be the year that so-called broadband power-line technology breaks through and becomes a third option for computer users whose high-speed connectivity options are cable modems or DSL.

"It is being embraced by consumers and there is increasing interest in it from the utilities," said Joe Fergus, president of Communications Technologies Inc., a firm that has launched BPL service in Manassas, Va. "It's still a young technology, but it is moving beyond the theoretical realm into actual deployment."

BPL operates in much the same way that DSL and cable operate. The signal is carried along existing power lines and emerges through any standard electric outlet into a modem that is plugged into the socket.

The current speeds are around 500 kilobytes to 1 megabyte per second, although some of the world's major modem producers are developing technology capable of 100 million megabytes per second.

Fergus and other advocates of BPL base their pitch for the technology on the relative ease in which it can be hooked up and the subscription price of around $30 per month compared to cable and DSL that are usually more expensive.

"It is more affordable and it comes over a service (electric utilities) that most people trust," Fergus added during a conference call announcing the release of the report from the New Millennium Research Council in Washington.

The report concluded that there was little standing in the way of a large-scale growth spurt for BPL that would benefit consumers in the form of a low-cost alternative to other high-speed data lines and the ability to hook up houses virtually anywhere in the United States and not just major urban markets.

"The real sweet spot for BPL and where its impact will be felt the most is in cities and towns like Manassas with 20,000, 50,000 or maybe even 100,000 potential customers," Fergus said.

That is not to say, however, that the road is wide open and that BPL will become a must-have consumer item. There are consumer and regulatory issues that are by no means insurmountable, but may be enough to give pause to conservative utilities and the state regulators who will have much to say about how deployment of BPL is paid for.

The bottom-line issue could be the inability of BPL to break out of the pack and establish itself as a clear choice for alternative Internet-service seekers.

"You can get communications data rates that are comparable to those available over telephone lines and telephone cables," said Bob Olsen, an electrical engineering professor at Washington State University, on the conference call.

Olsen added the somewhat deflating caveat, "You are going to get rates that are comparable but not much else."

That unfortunate state of technology means that BPL will be an option for consumers who cannot currently obtain DSL or cable service, or who are on the hunt for the lowest price available.

Fergus told reporters that his company's foray into Manassas sparked a price skirmish in which one of the established high-speed providers steeply cut its prices to compete with BPL's rates.

While great for customers, the idea that a BPL enterprise might have to rely on bargain-basement prices could dissuade some utility companies from committing startup capital to what is basically a telecommunications business.

And a regulated energy utility dabbling in the regulated telecommunications sector means plenty of regulatory hurdles to be cleared.

A separate report on BPL issued this month by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners predicted that the question of whether electricity ratepayers should finance a communications enterprise would have to be legally settled sooner or later.

"Based on historic cost accounting principles utilized by many regulatory commissions, the direct costs of BPL ... probably should not be supported by core electric ratepayers," the association's report said. "If these costs are not removed from electric rates, the captive electric ratepayers would arguably subsidize the deployment of BPL and also bear a degree of risk for what could be a speculative venture."

Utility companies could get around the problem by spinning off BPL enterprises into a non-regulated company; however, that adds overhead and effort to offering a service that will be competing head-to-head with the local phone and cable companies.

Another option would be a joint venture between the utility and a company such as Communications Technologies, which will no doubt take different forms depending upon the companies involved.

"There are a number of different ways that utilities can approach this," Barry Goodstadt, vice president for Harris Interactive, told United Press International on Thursday's conference call. "They can build it themselves -- or they can open it up (their power grid) for others to use."

A mix of solutions is considered the most likely scenario, and Goodstadt predicted that state regulators would not take a staunch hard line on BPL since high-speed Internet access is considered a desirable goal by politicians nationwide.

There are other details to be worked out, including access to power poles and BPL signals interfering with radio transmissions; however, the conference-call participants expected those to be worked out possibly through a congressional revisit of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

At the same time, getting the legalities in order is one thing, but it is entirely another to convince consumers to drop existing high-speed Internet service without the most compelling of reasons.

Think tank predicts Broadband over Power Lines will be reality
RCR Wireless
By Heather Forsgren Weaver

WASHINGTON-Broadband over Power Lines is a reality but it won't be much better than current high-speed offerings, experts told reporters Thursday.

"BPL is moving beyond the theoretical stage," said Joseph Fergus, president and chief executive officer of Communications Technologies Inc. (ComTek), which owns and operates a BPL service in Manassas, Va. "BPL is finally here and will become the broadband of choice for millions of consumers in 2005 and beyond."

While Fergus was definitely the cheerleader on the panel, Robert Olsen, professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University, was more cautious.

"The power system was not designed for this purpose," said Olsen. "You can get communications data rates rather comparable to digital subscriber lines and/or cable modems. Much higher rates are overly optimistic."

Fergus and Olsen were invited to comment on a new report by the New Millennium Research Council.

The report, "which advocates no policy," was compiled because "BPL is getting attention but it does not seem to be understood," said Allen Hepner, New Millennium Research Council executive director.

The Federal Communications Commission in October adopted rules allowing BPL. The rules set certain technical parameters but have not yet been tested so "no operational definition of 'harmful interference' has been established," said Olsen.

Fergus said there might be a role for wireless to play in the deployment of BPL by using either cell towers or unlicensed spectrum for part of the network.

Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant at Harris Interactive, said some companies have used Wi-Fi as the last link in the transmission chain. "There are hybrid systems out there that use both Wi-Fi and BPL," said Goodstadt.

Broadband over power lines set to take off, say proponents

Electrical Engineering Times, Comms Design, CMP Tech Web, Internet Week
By Spencer Chin

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Broadband over power lines, the use of the existing power grid to provide high-speed broadband communication services, is on the verge of becoming a viable competitor to existing cable and DSL Internet services, said several speakers during a news conference Thursday (Feb. 24).

Sponsored by an industry group called the New Millennium Research Council, the conference discussed a newly-released report by the council titled "Powering the Broadband Market in 2005 and Beyond."

Though the speakers painted a rosy future for the technology, they also conceded infrastructure, regulatory, and other issues need to be ironed out. Moreover, none of them presented clear statistical evidence of the technology's growth, instead providing anecdotal examples of strong interest in broadband over power. Moreover, with technologies such as WiMAX rapidly gaining momentum, broadband over power faces an uphill battle establishing a clear business case for companies to invest in.

"We need a strong business case and a cost analysis," said Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant for Harris Interactive, which is looking at market opportunities for the technology. Goodstadt added that if broadband over power line service could be offered for $30 monthly, it could potentially wind up in 13 million households and present a $4.5 million revenue opportunity.

Already offering broadband over power line service is Communications Technologies Inc. (COMTek), which is deploying the technology in Manassas, Va., according to president and chief executive Joseph Fergus. "We have a waiting list of 1,200 for BPL services," said Fergus, noting the service costs $28.95 per month. Fergus added that rival broadband providers in the area have been forced to reduce prices to compete.

Costs aside, the issue of what role utility companies would play in supplying broadband over power line services looms as a possible hurdle.

"Most utility regulation occurs at state levels," said Allen Hepner, executive director of the New Millennium Research Council. "It is unclear how broadband over power service would be regulated." He said considerations such as rights-of-way and pole access could create obstacles as each state could decide to impose widely divergent regulations.

Using the existing power grid structure to serve remote and underserved areas could also run into problems, speakers noted. While the FCC clearly favors broadband over power to provide Internet access to rural America, issues such as home proximity and service distribution points emerge with existing equipment, according to Fergus.

"There needs to be repeaters every thousand feet, Fergus said. "As equipment improves, distance can become longer and wider."

A significant roadblock to broadband over power line implementation is interference from radiation of signals that have been known to affect transmissions of ham radio operators.

"This is a wild card," said Robert Olsen, professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University and the lone speaker to clearly express skepticism for broadband over power lines. "The FCC requires that broadband over power line operators not provide harmful interference to users, but a standard has not yet been established for harmful interference," Olsen warned.

Harris Interactive's Goodstadt replied that interference concerns would be minimized in newer power grids, which tend to bury lines underground rather than locate them overhead.

'BPL' Delivers High-Speed Internet Over Electrical Lines

Newhouse News Service
By Margie Wylie

In tests across the country, computers are drawing more than current from electrical outlets. They're also pulling in high-speed Internet access using a technology dubbed broadband over power lines, or BPL.

Since nearly every home in the United States is connected to the electrical grid, backers say BPL is a perfect way to bridge that economically problematic "last mile" of service, even in rural areas where dial-up is now the norm. BPL also promises to smarten up electrical networks, saving ratepayers money and helping to prevent outages.

More than 40 utilities have experimented with powerline broadband, said Brett Kilbourne, director of regulatory services at the United Power Line Council, a BPL trade group in Washington. And, since the Federal Communications Commission issued operating rules for BPL service in October, trials in New York, Ohio and Virginia have gone commercial, offering access for between $20 and $60 per month.

BPL uses special equipment to connect a major Internet feed to a utility's medium-voltage wires, which connect substations to homes. Repeaters, which strengthen the Internet signal, are attached to the lines at least every 1,500 feet. At the subscriber's home, another device siphons off the Internet signal and feeds it into the in-wall electrical wiring, although some systems use wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) to connect from the utility pole to the home.

For Internet access, BPL subscribers simply plug one end of a special modem into any electric socket and the other into a computer's Ethernet port, or log into a Wi-Fi network.

BPL offers speeds as high as 4 megabits per second, depending on the system. The next generation of equipment, due out this year, will offer maximum speeds of 15 to 20 Mbps, fast enough to stream voice and video services alongside Internet access, said Jay L. Birnbaum, vice president for Current Communications Group LLC, a manufacturer in Germantown, Md.

But while President Bush and FCC Chairman Michael Powell have touted powerline networks as one way to extend broadband access down the remote roads of rural America, the electrical co-ops serving those outposts aren't as sanguine.

Only 5 percent of the South Central Indiana Rural Electric Membership Cooperative can buy broadband access today, said Dan McKelfresh, director of information services, making the co-op seem a prime target for services like BPL. The co-op serves four counties between Indianapolis and Bloomington from its Martinsville headquarters.

In a commercial trial expected to start in March, 850 homes in a subdivision just outside Martinsville will have access to 200 Kbps Internet service for $30 per month. More than 100 eager testers have signed up and paid a $99 installation fee.

Still, McKelfresh said, few farmhouses are likely to see BPL service soon. Installing and maintaining repeaters every mile or so down a remote stretch of line would simply cost too much, he said.

Likewise, Mike McWaters, vice president of member services at the Cullman Electric Cooperative in Cullman, Ala., said his co-op has doubts about BPL, even though it keeps a small test network for equipment manufacturer International Broadband Electric Communications Inc. of Huntsville.

"We still don't know if BPL is market viable. I think the technology has been proven, but it's just a matter of the economics," McWaters said.

Where the technology seems to be taking hold is in sprawling metro areas and suburbs. There, demand for broadband is high and housing more concentrated.

After a successful 45-home test last year, the Village of Solvay, N.Y., near Syracuse, signed a 10-year contract with its BPL partner to offer residents commercial service that goes live in March, said John Montone, superintendent of Solvay's electric department.

In Cincinnati, Current Communications Group and Cinergy Broadband LLC jointly run what may be the largest and best-known commercial service to date, available to "tens of thousands of homes" with "subscribers in the thousands," said Current Communications' Birnbaum, who would not disclose exact numbers.

Since the Washington suburb of Manassas, Va., began offering powerline broadband to its residents, the local cable provider has dropped its broadband price 55 percent and the waiting list for BPL has swelled to 1,300, said Joseph E. Fergus, president and CEO of Communication Technologies Inc., the Chantilly, Va., firm that built and runs the network.

The majority of BPL networks, however, are experimental and not sure bets to go commercial, Michigan Public Service Commissioner Laura Chappelle said from Lansing. Moreover, she said, power companies burned by telecommunications investments in the 1990s are approaching BPL slowly and cautiously.

For instance, one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the United States is sponsoring only two small BPL experiments so far. "Our goal is not to get in the broadband business but to learn as much as possible about it and how (BPL) can be used in utility control," said Hyman Schoenblum, vice president of corporate planning for Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc.

Along these lines, some utilities use BPL to monitor substations with remote cameras. In the future, they might detect a power outage automatically, reroute electricity without sending a worker to pull a switch, or prevent outages altogether by balancing the system load.

"We could, for example, reach into a number of homes on a hot day and flip off air conditioners for 15 or 20 minutes," Schoenblum said.

BPL also could give consumers greater control of energy consumption and finally usher in the so-called smart home that appliance manufacturers have promised since the 1950s. Solvay, for example, plans to offer energy-saving "smart boxes" to commercial powerline broadband customers, allowing them to use the Internet to turn appliances on and off from locations other than home.

But before this can unfold widely, BPL must clear remaining technical and regulatory hurdles.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, in a report last year, warned that BPL signals, which leak from unshielded overhead electrical lines, could interfere with nearby bands used by any of the 59,000 licensed users, including police, fire and other homeland security and emergency communications. Ham radio operators have complained of interference from pilot projects, and are lobbying heavily against BPL deployments.

Equipment manufacturers are trying to avoid interference by spacing repeaters more closely, lowering transmission power and "notching out," or not broadcasting on, problematic radio bands.

Providers also face a potential thicket of regulations, given that federal and state governments all have interests at stake, said Chappelle, who chairs a task force on BPL for the National Association of Regulatory and Utility Commissioners, a Washington-based group of state regulators.

While powerline equipment makers have settled on some standards for routing Internet signals over house wiring, the five major vendors of medium voltage equipment "are all still doing their own thing," the Indiana electric co-op's McKelfresh said.

Platts - Report says broadband-over-power-line service poised for growth.
Platts Commodity News

Washington (Platts)- A new report on broadband-over-power-line service said the technology is poised for growth in 2005, but noted that large-scale utility acceptance hinges on finding the right business model and the right market for the service. Utility interest in BPL is on the rise, with more than 20 trial projects in place, but commercialization of the technology has been limited to just a handful of utilities, said the report from the New Millennium Research Council. For that to change, "what's needed is a strong business case" for utilities to convince them they can compete with telecommunications and cable firms offering broadband service, said Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant at Harris Interactive. The NMRC white paper "Powering the Broadband Market in 2005 and Beyond," said there are a number of signs indicating BPL could grow significantly.

But the decision of whether utilities really want it is "the big question" that is being played out across the country, Goodstadt said.

Broadband Internet over power lines could take off in 2005, experts say

Internet Retailer

More than 50% of U.S. households have adopted broadband Internet access and that percentage could grow even more if the futuristic technology of delivering broadband access over power lines develops as quickly as some advocates expect.

The technology is poised to take off this year, with more than 20 projects in operation at year-end 2004 and more expected to come online this year, Allen Hepner, executive director of the New Millennium Research Council, said yesterday during a conference call to discuss the results of the council’s study on broadband over power line technology.

"During the past two years, the commercial and media perspectives on BPL in the United States have evolved from categorizing the technology as ‘almost ready’ to ‘really here,’" he says, adding that broadband over power line technology already is available in sections of New York City and Manassas, Va.

The spread of broadband Internet access has implications in the e-retailing industry because broadband users shop and buy more often online than dial-up users.

Recent surveys by Harris Interactive indicate that there is "significant consumer interest" in broadband over power line, says Barry Goodstadt, Harris Interactive vice president and senior consultant. "At approximately $30 a month, we would expect to see about 13 million households adopting this service," assuming it is delivered in a reasonable amount of time and of a quality similar to cable and telecommunications offerings, he says.

Joseph E. Fergus, president and CEO of Communications (COMTek), says the company in January had a waiting list of 1,200 people wanting broadband over power line service. COMTek in Manassas launched the first citywide commercial broadband over power line in the U.S. "The BPL industry is still very young, but it is finally moving beyond the theoretical state to the real thing," he says.

But one observer says broadband over power line still faces obstacles. "There have been a number of experiences in England and Germany which essentially have been shut down," says Robert Olsen, professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University. "The experience in Europe has been more mixed. In the U.S., too, there are examples of systems that have been shut down or utilities that have not decided to go into the business," he says.

Olsen also warns that the Federal Communications Commission prohibits broadband over power line operators from causing "harmful interference" to licensed users of the same electromagnetic spectrum, but has yet to define the term. "That’s the wild card," he says.

Broadband Via Electric Lines Could Challenge DSL, Cable
Media Post/Media Daily News
By Gavin O'Malley

PROVIDING BROADBAND SERVICE THROUGH ELECTRIC power lines is a potentially competitive alternative to high-speed Internet connections via cable and DSL, but infrastructure and regulatory issues loom, said participants in a conference call yesterday held by the New Millennium Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based lobby and policy group.

If broadband-over-power-line service were offered for $30 per month, estimated Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant for Harris Interactive, it would reach 13 million households and present a $4.5 million revenue opportunity over the next three to five years.

But Robert Olsen, professor of electrical engineering at Washington State University, cautioned that broadband-over-power lines potentially interferes with certain radio signals--a problem that engineers will have to fix before the nation sees extensive power line implementation. "The FCC requires that broadband-over-power line operators not provide harmful interference to users, but a standard has not yet been established for harmful interference," Olsen warned.

Harris Interactive's Goodstadt replied that interference concerns would be minimized in newer power grids, which tend to bury lines underground rather than locate them overhead.

Allen Hepner, executive director of the New Millennium Research Council, added that it's unclear how the government would regulate broadband-over-power service.

Joseph Fergus, president and chief executive of Communications Technologies Inc.--currently deploying the technology in Manassas, Va.--said he had a waiting list of 1,200 customers. Because of the technology's relatively cheap cost of $28.95 per month, rival broadband providers in and around Manassas were forced to reduce their prices, Fergus claimed. He declined to go into specifics.

BPL Powering Up in 2005 -- Maybe

WiFi Planet, ASP News, CIO Update, Internet News
By Roy Mark

Broadband over power line (BPL) technology is quickly emerging as a workable alternative, third-pipe competitor to cable and telephone companies, but it still needs a plan, according to a new report released today.

Prepared by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC), a Washington-based policy group, the report notes that trials, as well as actual commercial deployments of BPL systems, are on the rise, with more than 20 projects in operation in 2004 and more expected to come online in 2005.

"Experts feel that while the technology might be ready, electric utility companies and their partners still need to find ways to effectively compete in the broadband market," Barry Goodstadt, a vice president at Harris Interactive, said at an NMRC press conference.

BPL holds tantalizing prospects for spreading broadband since the wires that carry electricity also possess the capacity to serve as a conduit for data signals. By bundling radio-frequency energy on the same line with the electric current that is already carried, data can be transmitted without the need for a separate line.

Once the signal reaches a business or home, the BPL technology allows users to plug a modem into any electrical outlet for a broadband connection.

"It is possible to deploy BPL networks that will offer data rates comparable to those of DSL or cable modem systems," Robert Olsen, an electrical engineering professor at Washington State University and another press conference participant, said. "It is doubtful, however, that data rates significantly higher than this will be possible without a very significant investment in 'conditioning' the power system."

Goodstadt said Harris Interactive surveys show there is strong consumer interest in BPL and estimates that if the service is priced at $30 a month, there could be as many as 13 million households generating $4.5 billion for utilities within the next five years. "But will they [utilities] really be able to deliver those services?" Goodstat asked. "In the past, utilities have been wary of rolling out new technologies."

One that has not been wary is the city of Manassas, Va., a bedroom community west of Washington. Last year, the city awarded a 10-year contract to Communications Technologies (COMtek) to provide BPL services over the city's electric grid. COMtek said the Manassas project is the first commercial deployment of BPL in the United States. Offering residential service at $28.95 a month and commercial service for $39.95, COMtek has signed up more than a thousand customers and has several thousand more on a waiting list for when the company completes the rollout to all 12,500 residents of Manassas in April.

COMtek President and CEO Joseph Fergus said once his company began offering BPL, a local cable modem provider slashed its prices by 55 percent.

"Cities like Manassas, with only one or two competitors, are the real sweet spot," Fergus said. "BPL isn't the answer for every community," he added, "and, in some cases, the technology is likely to be blended with other broadband platforms in order to provide the widest possible coverage."

BPL systems require a connection from the Internet backbone at a power substation, repeaters and couplers along the power lines. A final converter transfers the signal from the medium-voltage transmission lines to the low-voltage lines that go into homes and businesses. Some BPL trials have used Wi-Fi to bypass the final converter.

Some technologists and industry analysts remain concerned with the potential interference to radio transmissions from BPL systems. BPL transmissions are not shielded to prevent radio interference in the same manner as telephone and cable lines. Amateur radio operators, in particular, have opposed BPL.

Nevertheless, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October cleared the way for commercial BPL deployment by imposing technical requirements on BPL equipment and establishing "excluded frequency bands" that BPL must entirely avoid to protect aeronautical and aircraft communications. Amateur radio operators received no exclusions, but the rules require the establishment of a publicly available BPL notification database to help identify and resolve harmful interference claims.

"The industry is finally moving beyond the theoretical stage to the real thing: actual commercial deployments of BPL," Fergus said. "Of course, we are dealing with a regulated industry [utilities] and that takes time, but we're getting calls from all over the world."

As the NMRC report notes, "Some BPL supporters caution that while the technology has been shown to be technically workable, economic questions remain about whether the electric companies can generate a profit. Regarded by some as a perfect solution for America's perceived broadband 'problems,' BPL still must prove the technology can be reliable on a large scale."

Cable Fax Daily

Yes, No, Maybe: BPL may be "primed for real growth in '05 and beyond" across the US, according to a report from New Millennium Research Council. Trials and commercial deployments of BPL are on the rise, with some 20 projects in operation in '04 and more expected in '05.

During the past 2 years, the commercial and media perspectives on BPL have evolved from categorizing the technology as 'almost ready' to 'really here,'" the NMRC concludes. That said, Prof Robert Olsen of WA State U said that while it's theoretically possible that BPL will offer "data rates comparable to those of DSL or cable," FCC restrictions on electromagnetic emissions could stand in the way of the necessary enhancements to power utilities needed to make such speeds a reality.
Cabling and Installation Magazine

Broadband over powerline technology may be primed for real growth in 2005 and beyond across the United States, according to a new white paper released today by the New Millennium Research Council.

Trials and actual commercial deployments of Broadband over powerline (BPL) systems are on the rise, with more than 20 projects in operation in 2004 and more expected to come online this year. By one estimate, roughly a quarter million homes in the United States already had the opportunity to choose BPL services in 2004.

Entitled "Powering the Broadband Market in 2005 and Beyond," the NMRC white paper asks: "Is 2005 the year of BPL?"

The report says there are a number of signs that suggest this could be the time the technology begins its emergence as a viable competitor in the broadband market. Today, electric utilities across the country are deploying the necessary technology to provide broadband and other advanced communications services, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), via the power lines that connect to virtually every home and business. Many industry watchers and representatives now believe BPL can dramatically change the landscape of the broadband market, offering new forms of competition and delivering high-quality service to remote areas. During the past two years, the commercial and media perspectives on BPL in the United States have evolved from categorizing the technology as "almost ready" to "really here," according to the report.

Though still in its early stages in the U.S., BPL technology already is available in such places as sections of New York City and Manassas, VA. Both of the firms for these cities - Ambient in New York City and Communication Technologies, Inc. in Manassas - are profiled in the report.

"The industry is finally moving beyond the theoretical stage to the real thing: actual commercial deployments of BPL that are being pioneered today by companies like COMTek," says COMTek President Joseph Fergus.

"BPL isn't the answer for every community and, in some cases, the technology is likely to be blended with other broadband platforms in order to provide the widest possible coverage," Fergus continues. "But the bottom line is unmistakable: BPL is finally here in a real way that will touch the lives of millions of additional U.S. consumers and businesses in 2005 and beyond."

The New Millennium Research Council is based in Washington, D.C. For more information visit www.thenmrc.org.

BPL ready to come of age say NMRC

Power Engineering

Broadband over powerline (BPL) technology may be "primed for real growth in 2005 and beyond" across the US, according to a new white paper released today by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC).

BPL transmits high-speed communications services, including the Internet, over the existing electric infrastructure using adoptive technologies. Trials and actual commercial deployments of BPL systems are on the rise in the US, with over 20 projects in operation in 2004.

The NMRC white paper suggested that electric utilities across the US are deploying the necessary technology to provide broadband and other advanced communications services, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), via the power lines.

Industry representatives at a press conference yesterday believed that BPL could dramatically change the landscape of the broadband market, offering new forms of competition and delivering a service to remote areas.

Joseph E. Fergus, president and CEO of COMTek, one of the BPL companies profiled in the report, said: "BPL isn't the answer for every community, and, in some cases, the technology is likely to be blended with other broadband platforms in order to provide the widest possible coverage. But the bottom line is unmistakable: BPL is finally here in a real way that will touch the lives of millions of additional US consumers and businesses in 2005 and beyond."

Though BPL is in its infancy with regard to deployment in the US, it is available in sections of New York City and, in what is the first city wide commercial BPL network in the US, the suburban Washington D.C. community of Manassas, Virginia