Conan
May 26th, 2004, 07:48 AM
Roughly 50 million homes in the United States connect to the Internet through broadband, typically cable or DSL (but to a limited degree satellite as well). Although that sounds like a lot, it's still a far cry from the nearly 70 million homes with dial-up connections. But this month, a new service is being rolled out that, over time, could dramatically change the economics of broadband Internet and transform what is largely a duopoly between cable and DSL into a competitive market.
The new option: connecting to the Internet through electrical sockets. In this scenario, the home user plugs a specialized modem into the wall socket and is immediately brought online at speeds up to 3 megabits per second, as fast as any broadband service on the market today. Known as " broadband over power lines, " or BPL, the service is currently available to 16,000 homes in Cincinnati.
Marketed under the brand Communications (http://www.currentgroup.com/), the Cincinnati offering came as something of a surprise. For years, the idea of delivering Internet access through power lines has been stymied by engineering problems that until recently seemed intractable. As far back as March 2000, CNET reported that companies were close to delivering high-speed Internet access through power lines, but nothing came of it. It's taken four years to turn the theory into commercial reality. Current Communications won't reveal the specifics of what made its technology perform as promised, but in general terms, what's historically hindered the deployment of BPL is that the electrical system was designed to transmit electricity and nothing else.
source: :arrow: msn.com (http://equipped.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=4)
The new option: connecting to the Internet through electrical sockets. In this scenario, the home user plugs a specialized modem into the wall socket and is immediately brought online at speeds up to 3 megabits per second, as fast as any broadband service on the market today. Known as " broadband over power lines, " or BPL, the service is currently available to 16,000 homes in Cincinnati.
Marketed under the brand Communications (http://www.currentgroup.com/), the Cincinnati offering came as something of a surprise. For years, the idea of delivering Internet access through power lines has been stymied by engineering problems that until recently seemed intractable. As far back as March 2000, CNET reported that companies were close to delivering high-speed Internet access through power lines, but nothing came of it. It's taken four years to turn the theory into commercial reality. Current Communications won't reveal the specifics of what made its technology perform as promised, but in general terms, what's historically hindered the deployment of BPL is that the electrical system was designed to transmit electricity and nothing else.
source: :arrow: msn.com (http://equipped.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=4)