200Mbps BPL to Connect Amethi Villagers -- in India !!

BPL to Connect Amethi Villagers
By Sonal Desai
Mumbai, Jul 8, 2008


Broadband over Powerline (BPL) technology will be used to provide Broadband access to ten villages in Amethi (Uttar Pradesh). These villages, with a collective population of about 3,000, can avail of this service within 12 months.

These villages will have automated water and electric meters in the next nine months. The villagers will also be able to execute intelligent grid management.

The ten villages are a part of a multi million dollar pilot project that will connect them over the Broadband over Powerline (BPL) technology. BPL equipment is used to send an IP signal at 200 Mbps over existing power lines in medium and low voltage applications.


The technology can provide real-time access for utility application from usage information, proactive outage notification, automatic meter reading, load management capabilities among other utility management and customer service enhancements.

"The technology will provide access to multiple forms of communication including the World Wide Web and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)," said Retaish Parimoo, MD (India operations) for Maple Leaf India.

New Delhi-based Maple Leaf has partnered with Vancouver-based Corinex and the Indian Institute of Information Technology (Allahabad) for the project, to be based on a hub and spoke model.

Citing the benefits of installing BPL, Parimoo said, "The BPL can be installed on existing transmission lines, and will therefore not disturb infrastructure." Currently, the company is in talks with the ministry of science and technology, and utility companies for the required permissions.

Once the infrastructure is set-up, the villagers will be a part of a bi-directional flow of information. BPL can then be used for various other functions of e-governance such as agriculture, healthcare, education, and information on other government schemes. It will also be cost effective. A kilometer of the BPL technology costs one-fourth of optical fiber, Parimoo said.

He said the company is presently importing the technology from Vancouver, but if the demand for BPL increases, it will consider manufacturing the technology in India. He said that once the project starts off, Maple will bid for similar projects to connect villages across India.