Beijing, China: CEPCA and IGRS Establish a Partnership for Promoting and Certifying Powerline Communication Products in China

March 21, 2007 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
CEPCA and IGRS Establish a Partnership for Promoting and Certifying Powerline Communication Products in China

BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Consumer Electronics Powerline Communications Alliance (CEPCA) and Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing Group (IGRS) announced their partnership to promote powerline communication (PLC) in China. This partnership is based on a Memorandum of Understanding the two organizations signed in December, and it symbolizes the importance of PLC networking to IGRS member companies.

In this ongoing partnership, CEPCA and IGRS will mutually endorse and promote each other’s value worldwide. As a significant first step, IGRS and CEPCA will build a CEPCA certification test center in China to jointly certify and promote PLC-equipped products. Chinese vendors will enjoy a convenient means for certifying their PLC solutions domestically, which will help guarantee IGRS product reliability. Both organizations also plan to investigate joint projects with even greater significance in the future.

Sun Yuning, IGRS President, explains, “Our members are very interested in the advantages that PLC offers IGRS networking solutions. At IGRS, we are protecting our members’ PLC investments by ensuring that any IGRS product that uses PLC technology cannot interfere with another IGRS product with a different PLC technology. Eventually, IGRS may standardize PLC protocols; but, until that work is complete, we must ensure that IGRS PLC networks maintain the reliability that attracts devout customers.”

Michael Stelts, CEPCA President, describes the importance of this agreement. “CEPCA members consider IGRS a key international partner and we are pleased to establish the first CEPCA certification center in China with IGRS. This partnership signifies both the importance of the Chinese market for CEPCA members and the prominent position that IGRS commands in the Chinese home networking market.”

About CEPCA

Consumer Electronics Powerline Communication Alliance is a nonprofit corporation that promotes and continuously advances high-speed PLC technology to create a new generation of consumer electronics products through the rapid, broad and open industry adoption of CEPCA specifications. The organization has completed work on a coexistence specification that allows different PLC technologies to operate on the same line simultaneously. For example, the CEPCA coexistence specification will allow broadband over powerline (BPL) access technology to work simultaneously with the multiple PLC home networking systems that might be found in an apartment building. More information is available at www.cepca.org.

CEPCA membership includes 17 companies, including major multinational CE, IT, and semiconductor manufacturers. Please review the list of members at http://www.cepca.org/about_us/member_companies/.