Internet via the Power Grid: New Interest in Obvious Idea

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Very good article by John  -- an IPer.

BTW I wonder what happens to the system when it gets hit by lightning -- a
real real mess in parts of the USA.

Dave

Internet via the Power Grid: New Interest in Obvious Idea

April 10, 2003
By JOHN MARKOFF and MATT RICHTEL




 

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9 - As cable, telephone and wireless
companies compete to provide high-speed Internet access to
homes, a new challenger is emerging based on a decidedly
old technology. 

The idea is to send Internet data over ordinary electric
power lines. Proponents argue that it can be a competitive
alternative to digital cable, telephone digital subscriber
line and wireless efforts to connect the "last mile"
between homes and Internet service providers.

Power-line networking has held out promise for several
decades, in part because the electric grid is already in
place, running to almost every residence in the nation, and
also because it was thought that power companies would leap
at the idea of a new revenue source - if the technology is
proven. 

But the idea has elicited deep skepticism from
technologists who argue that the electric power network is
a remarkably difficult environment for transmitting digital
information. Moreover the nation's electric power industry
has for the most part remained complacent about the
technology. 

Still, the technology is getting sudden attention in
response to several trial efforts around the country and in
other nations. Today, Michael K. Powell, the chairman of
the Federal Communications Commission, gave the concept a
further boost when he toured a demonstration site for the
technology in Potomac, Md.

The agency and its chairman have said they are backing the
power-line approach in an effort to stir competition and
offer greater consumer choice.

"I was struck by how it has matured," Mr. Powell said. He
said the F.C.C. was preparing to undertake a regulatory
proceeding that could help pave the way for commercial
deployment. "I'm optimistic," he said.

The F.C.C. has licensed seven companies to conduct field
tests in roughly a dozen communities around the country,
including Raleigh, N.C.; Potomac, Md.; Cincinnati,; Lehigh,
Pa.; and Briarcliff, N.Y.

But even if the technology can be made to work, weighty
business questions remain. What is unclear, according to
analysts and academics who follow the emerging industry, is
whether any of the fledgling competitors can make money
offering consumers lower-cost access to high-speed data,
including Internet-based telephone calls and video.

The technology requires the installation of equipment that
acts as a switch to transfer data between the power lines
and fiber optic lines, which traditionally carry Internet
traffic. 

Currently there are several competing approaches. Some
companies are developing the technology to transmit data
over traditional fiber cables until it reaches telephone
poles that serve small clusters of homes, where it would
then be transferred to the power lines. Others are taking a
more radical approach, trying to transmit Internet data
directly from electrical power substations that serve
several hundred homes and businesses in a neighborhood.

For the more ambitious plans, "there are all sorts of costs
associated with installation," said Rahul Tongia, a
researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
"The costs do involve people going up the poles. That's not
to say these costs are crippling, but they have to be
factored in." 

At least one company is trying to minimize the costs
associated with home installation by relying on inexpensive
consumer equipment that is already available to use
electrical wiring as a local area network within the home.

"What we are now seeing in our customer's homes," said Jay
Birnbaum, president of Current Technologies, "are data
rates ranging from two to four megabits," which is much
faster than old-fashioned dial- up services but not
particularly fast for high-speed broadband services.
Current Technologies, based in Germantown, Md., is
conducting the Potomac trial that Mr. Powell visited today,
in cooperation with the local power provider, the Potomac
Electric Power Company.

Despite the obstacles, some power companies may forge ahead
because of further advantages from providing the service,
including the ability to regulate the flow of electricity
more directly and to use the network to check power meters
over the Internet rather than visiting individual homes.

PowerWan, a start-up in Palo Alto, Calif., has begun
testing a technology capable of doing just that in a
handful of homes in Hawaii. Moreover, the company says it
can offer data rates at twice the speed of telephone line
D.S.L., said John Wheadon, PowerWan's acting chief
executive. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/10/technology/10POWE.html?ex=1051012437&ei=1&;
en=45071f1c5f7132c7



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales () nytimes com or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help () nytimes com.  

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/