Ambient, Duke to Power Charlotte- BPL company extends its deal with Duke to provide broadband services to 6,000 customers

September 26, 2006

Ambient Corp., a broadband over power lines (BPL) systems provider said on Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with Duke Energy to extend a pilot program to supply BPL services to 6,000 homes in Charlotte, North Carolina.


Duke, one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the United States, will become one of a handful of large power utilities to invest in BPL which offers them the ability to add intelligence to the electricity grid.

Using BPL the power companies can both reduce outages and read meters automatically. The utilities can monitor the grid for potential trouble situations. BPL can also allow them to offer their power customers’ access to the Internet.

Intelligent Grid
Ambient, which competes with companies such as Motorola, IBM, and Current Communications among others, will supply the communications that adds intelligence to the grid.

“We believe that Duke's cautious and rigorous approach to validating our BPL technology prior to this initial deployment further strengthens the credibility of the BPL industry,” said John Joyce, CEO of Ambient.

Ambient will use its FCC-certified X2 BPL access node along with BPL couplers and modems in the building of the network.

The Newton, Massachusetts based company will also will provide the engineering and technical services needed to design, support and assist in the deployment and management of the network.

Slow Emergence
The BPL market has emerged slowly as ever-conservative utilities have slowly warmed up to the technology.

There are only a handful of commercial BPL deployments in the U.S. The largest deployment is in Cincinnati, Ohio and is managed by Current.

A second deployment is located in Manassas, Virginia and is run by Communication Technologies of Chantilly, Virginia. (see U.S. City Lights up BPL)

Last December Current announced it was collaborating with TXU Electric, one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., to enable broadband communications over the electrical network in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. (see BPL Lights Texas)