Arkansas: Internet access via power lines a possibility

Internet access via power lines a possibility
Friday, Feb 24, 2006

By Aaron Sadler
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - Electric lines may some day add new lanes to the information superhighway and, when widely used, enhance Arkansas' economy, legislators learned Thursday.

Officials with Entergy Arkansas and the Arkansas electric cooperatives said they are researching new technology that transmits high-speed Internet data across power lines.

High-speed Internet, called broadband, is a key cog in economic development, said John Ahlen, president of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority.

Expanding broadband to all areas of the state benefits Arkansas economically, Ahlen told the Joint Committee on Advanced Communications and Information Technology.

"For rural places to compete in a world economy, the infrastructure they need is broadband connectivity," Ahlen said.

Though broadband over power lines seems like a logical way to reach rural areas, electric company officials consider it experimental technology.

They said transmitting broadband over electrical lines has worked well in densely-populated areas of foreign countries. However, it may be too costly to install rural areas, said Paul Means of Entergy and Doug White of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives.

"At least in theory, it's a very good idea," Means said.

Implementing a broadband network over power lines would require placement of "repeaters" along the line every 3,000 feet to strengthen the data signal. Means said utility companies would have to purchase "jumpers" for transformers in order to descramble the signals.

Equipment costs are a major obstacle, the utility company officials said.

Both Means and White said the companies plan to use the technology internally to monitor systems and perhaps remotely read electric meters.

According to Federal Communications Commission statistics, broadband is accessible in 85 percent of the state, though broadband providers think the figure is lower.

Eddie Drilling, president of AT&T Arkansas, said between 20 and 25 percent of Arkansas households have no access to broadband.

But Drilling said broadband access is available to most businesses and industries, and his company has a "fairly robust network" of fiber-optic lines, he said.

"If Hino Motors comes to Marion, Ark., and says 'We want to build a plant and we want fiber (optic lines) to it,' we can do that," Drilling said.

One location where residents are receiving the same fiber-optic access as business and industry is Lavaca, in Sebastian County.

There, telephone provider Pinnacle Communications launched a $5 million project last year to connect every customer with a fiber-optic line.

Pinnacle Vice President Dean Gibson said the rural company with 1,750 subscribers hopes to offer video, Internet and telephone service all from the same line.

Gibson said his company would be the first in the state to offer "fiber to the home" connections to all its customers.

Other phone companies are exploring that option. Some already are replacing main lines made of copper with fiber-optic cable.

"We just felt like, to get the real benefits from fiber, we were going to have to go not only to the curbside, but directly to the customer himself," Gibson said in a telephone interview after Thursday's meeting. "I think it's a step that every phone company is going to have to take in the future."

Ahlen told legislators that broadband technology is one part of an overall economic strategy needed to improve the state.

Drilling said residents already know some benefit from broadband service, with the advent of the Arkansas Interactive Video Network.

Schools and universities use the network for video conferences. It is available at 469 sites across the state and 5,000 conferences or classes are held each month over the network.

Also Thursday, legislators learned 11 school districts sought federal grant money at the urging of the committee.

Last month, the committee was told 49 districts failed to apply for money from the federal e-Rate program, which helps pay for new telephone and computer connections.

The program is funded by a fee attached to telephone bills.

Becky Rains of the state Department of Information Systems said the districts participated in the program "due to the focus (legislators) provided" last month.

Districts that did not apply lost an estimated total of $215,588, she said.

new BROADBAND over POWERLINES 200 Mbps BPL Technology