Illinois: Princeton BROADBAND over POWER LINES Internet project to continue

Princeton Internet project to continue
ICC denies grant funds, but BPL installation will go on, company says
Thursday, September 21, 2006

BY ERINN DESHINSKY
OF THE JOURNAL STAR

PRINCETON - The Illinois Commerce Commission denied a grant request from a company installing a new Internet connection in Princeton, but the project will continue.
Connecting Point, the Internet provider installing broadband over power lines (BPL) within the city, plans to continue working on the testing phase of the approximately $1.8 million project, despite lacking a nearly $400,000 grant from the state.

The Internet providers were seeking about $393,000 in grant funding from the ICC, which was offering a grant for entities offering high-speed broadband access to areas that currently lack the technology.

The commission denied Connecting Point's request because Princeton has access to Internet service from other providers and much of the project has already been constructed. Many of the projects that received some of the $4.6 million in state funding are still in planning stages.

Princeton is one of the first cities in the nation testing BPL service, which offers a high-speed connection through the subscribers' power outlet.

The city began the project last year, installing several miles of fiber optic cable throughout the city. The cable is then routed by power lines to individual houses or businesses. The user simply plugs the modem into an outlet and is connected to the Internet.

Connecting Point is finishing its second-generation study in the southwest quadrant of the city. The second-generation equipment offers subscribers a 3-gigabyte-per-second connection.

Right now, only about 50 residents have the service. Connecting Point vice president Steve Brust said nearly everyone who was in the test phase has opted to stick with the service. Twenty businesses are directly connected to a fiber optic cable, which offers an even higher and more dependable connection.

Brust said the grant money would have helped defray some of the costs from the project, which has seen its ups and downs, being a relatively new process.

"We've been started and stopped, looking for the right equipment," Brust said. "... It's a lot of trial and error."

Just because the company did not receive the grant does not mean the project is finished. Brust said the company is working on the test phase and hopes to have the technology installed for operation throughout the entire city within six months.