Princeton, IL. set to roll out city Internet; BPL service uses municipally owned electric lines !!!

Princeton set to roll out city Internet
BPL service uses municipally owned electric lines

Sunday, March 16, 2008
BY MATT BUEDEL
OF THE JOURNAL STAR

PRINCETON - The city of Princeton by the end of the month should complete a one-of-a-kind project to bring alternative high-speed Internet service to its residents through the municipally owned electric utility.
Known as broadband over power line, or BPL, the service uses a combination of fiber optic cable and municipally owned electric lines to provide Web access through electrical outlets and a modified modem.

The city began installing hardware to transmit Internet service through radio waves over the power lines in late 2005 to a limited number of residents to test the technology and began a full-scale roll-out in 2006.

Jason Bird, superintendent of Princeton's electric department, said the final quadrant of the city should be covered by the end of the month, and that, so far, some of the fears that initially were aired over the service have not been realized.

"We'll have the entire town covered where if someone wanted service, we'd be able to hook it up right away or within a day," Bird said.

When the city first announced that it intended to install the largely experimental technology, some amateur radio operators complained that interference from service could disrupt radio signals.

An inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission ensued, but that resulted in regulatory approval of equipment modifications meant to prevent interference that was fiercely contested.

More than a year later, Bird says no radio operators have complained.

The BPL service relies on 22 miles of fiber optic cable laid around Princeton to deliver Internet to transmitters that carry the signal over power lines to businesses and private residences with speeds similar to that of DSL service but slower than advertised data transfer rates for broadband service through cable companies.

While the city's electric department has installed and maintained the hardware for the system, it contracts with Connecting Point in Peru to provide Internet service and software and handle other day-to-day business matters. Princeton residents currently pay $24.99 per month, and a portion of those charges goes the city.

Steve Brust, vice president of Connecting Point, said more than 100 customers have signed on for BPL in Princeton and use it for the same purposes that customers of other Internet service providers use high-speed connections.

"People are using it for telephone service, for gaming, for all different things," he said.