The Latest Buzz on BROADBAND over POWER LINES !!

The Latest Buzz on Powerline
08/01/2006

By Meg McGinity

It’s been talked about and promised for years, yet the market for it never seems to materialize. But sporadic voices in the occasional booths and panels around GLOBALCOMM earlier this summer were proclaiming enthusiastically the promise — and growing presence — of broadband to and through the home via power lines.

While many chip makers, device manufacturers and some innovative service providers have been champing at the bit to leverage the electric infrastructure so prevalent in many countries, utilities for the most part have been reticent to jump into or partner with the broadband and networking business. One of the things holding back the progression of tapping into power lines for in-home networking has been the conservative nature of the utility companies that own the assets, say executives. “Utilities have been slow to grasp this,” says Chano Gomez, vice president of technology and strategic partnerships at DS2 (Design of Systems on Silicon), which supplies high-speed powerline chips to device makers such as NETGEAR. “They are waiting for the pioneers.”

Those pioneers smell a market. That’s because as service providers continue to invest in network upgrades that promise faster connections to the home, they are faced with the quagmire of how to distribute that fat pipe throughout the residence. “The problem providers have is they know how to bring broadband to the home, but they can’t distribute the signals inside,” says Gomez.

The more appliances in the home that can access more applications, the more a service provider could recoup in added revenue. That’s where using powerline technology as a means for trafficking content throughout the home comes in.


CURRENT Communications’ Jim Dondero
On paper, using power lines as a means for distributing traffic throughout a residence is a no-brainer. For one, electric lines are prevalent in nearly every home, so there would be no install required or disruption to a customer, or big investment by a carrier for equipment. It’s getting more economical, too, say executives. Today, adding the powerline communication capability chip to a home gateway device adds about $25, but by year’s end, with bigger volumes being produced, that cost will drop to about $15, estimates Gomez.

While only tech-savvy consumers at this point would know enough to buy the equipment in stores, standards and trade groups, like HomePlug Powerline Alliance, are pushing to make such equipment more robust and interoperable. One challenge, executives say, is dispelling the “quirky” label with which home-plug networking has been labored. One contributing factor is the possible interference from HAM or CB radio communications, say experts, that could decrease the reliability of the transmissions. Another potential problem for the powerline advocates is the difficulty in ensuring the quality of the electric wiring inside the home.

Other technologies aimed at home networking also have their strengths and vulnerabilities. For instance, wireless technology, which has gained momentum in modems for its portability factor, can have reliability, interference and security problems. Consumers have been buying their own access points for the home and stringing them together to create a network, much to the chagrin of providers, say industry executives. “Wireless in the home is a service provider’s worst nightmare,” says Tom Wendt, founder of Optical Entertainment Network. “We are finding consumers say ‘come fix that for me.’”

Coax is another transport option, as championed by companies like Entropic Communications Inc. The company’s network processor, c.Link, threads together devices using coax. Coax is abundant in homes and easy to work with and has the backing of organizations like MoCA (The Multimedia over Coax Alliance), but the physical wiring and drilling through walls for installation is not aesthetically ideal to consumers.

Gomez says the market outside the United States for powerline technology is gaining traction at a faster pace. Telefonica S.A., he says, already is using power lines for IPTV distribution within the home. European providers are eyeing it for gaming applications, linking one box to another.

Still, the powerline technology and movement has its skeptics. Some device vendors say that while they are testing it as a means for networking in their labs, the jury is out on the technology. “RBOCs want wireless,” says Frank Galuppo, CEO at Amedia Networks Inc.

But even if skeptics are right and powerline technology ends up being the best solution only for the “odd room out” — like the kitchen that doesn’t have coax or the porch that can’t get strong wireless reception — rather than the whole home, that slice of the networking market could be enough to power up the powerline industry.

Of course, powerline technology is also a form of broadband access in the loop. This commonly is referred to as Broadband over Power Line (BPL) technology. And the most high-profile company pushing ahead BPL is probably CURRENT Communications Services LLC, which counts as investors such marquee names as Google and Liberty Media.

CURRENT Communications has partnered with utilities to use the electrical grid as means for broadband delivery to the home. Once the network passes a home, the customer can plug the provided modem into the outlet, connect the appliance and get high-speed access. Using the powerline infrastructure also will enable CURRENT and the partnering utility to offer security services like home surveillance, or telemetric applications, like automatic meter reading.

CURRENT has passed 50,000 homes in Cincinnati, and although the company won’t discuss subscriber numbers there, Jim Dondero, vice president of marketing at CURRENT, says 55 percent of CURRENT’s customers have switched over from DSL and cable.

As announced last year, the company also is working with Texas energy utility TXU, with plans to turn on service by year’s end.

CURRENT plans to pass 2 million homes within the next few years, Dondero says.


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BROADBAND over POWER LINES: new 200 Mbps Technology !!!