Arkansas: Bill Would Allow Broadband Over Power Lines

By James Gordon - 3/6/2007 11:38:49 AM

The state Senate is considering legislation that would allow electric utility companies to deploy broadband networks over power lines, a development that could potentially offer Arkansans access to the Internet through the same home wiring that powers their living room lamp.

House Bill 1589 would allow Arkansas electric utility companies to implement broadband over power line (BPL) technology.
The bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Daryl Pace, R-Benton, said he believes Arkansans could start getting their Internet access via power lines within the next five to seven years.

BPL has been kicked around for years, but received a boost of attention when TXU Electric Delivery of Dallas announced in December 2005 that it would team with Current Communications Group of Germantown, Md., to deploy a BPL network to 2 million homes in North Texas.

'Quadruple Play'

Entergy Arkansas spokesperson Dan Daugherty said the company is supporting the legislation so that Entergy can test the feasibility of implementing BPL in Arkansas. But he hesitated to say that Entergy would soon become a telecommunications company.

“If we did eventually implement the technology in some way, I think we would be most interested in what it could do for our internal use, to run our utility business,” Daugherty said.

With BPL technology, utility companies could deploy a “smart grid,” allowing them to remotely read meters and detect outages.

But BPL has also been touted as a potential viable alternative to DSL and cable Internet with the possibility of offering, not just a triple, but a quadruple play: electricity in addition to voice, video and broadband over a single line into the home.

And, with nearly every home in the state wired for power, BPL could bring broadband to rural areas of Arkansas currently lacking high-speed access to the Internet.
Daugherty said that for Entergy to become an Internet service provider, it would first have to sink a lot of money into infrastructure and equipment. Also, since telecommunications is not Entergy’s core business, Daugherty said, the company would likely team with a telecom in order to deliver broadband access, an arrangement similar to that of TXU and Current Communications.

Though there might be technological hurdles to BPL in Arkansas, at least nothing should stand in the way of the legislation allowing for its implementation, Pace said.

The bill passed to House with only three nays and six abstentions on Thursday. The bill is on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Committee for Transportation, Technology & Legislative Affairs.

All Senate committee members have sponsored HB1589, virtually guaranteeing its swift movement to the Senate floor, where a vote could happen as early as this week, Pace said.