BPL Global Expands European Presence thru acquisition of France-based Euro Connect

Monday December 11, 8:30 am ET
BPL Global Acquires Euro Connect to Grow and Strengthen Leadership Position in Europe by Accelerating Smart Grid Development and Adding a Managed Services Offering


PITTSBURGH, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- BPL Global(TM), Ltd., an international leader in "Smart Grid" technologies and broadband services over power lines (BPL), announced today its acquisition of Euro Connect SA. Through the terms of the deal, the Euro Connect team will continue as a reliable broadband service and solution provider to existing customers in Europe and Africa. BPL Global will accelerate business development in Europe, the largest consumer market in the world. This acquisition is the next step in the company's global expansion strategy. Pascal Julienne, CEO of Euro Connect, is appointed Executive Director BPL Global Europe. The Euro Connect headquarters outside of Paris in Le Mans, France will become the European headquarters of BPL Global.

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Current Communications BPL offers Special Holiday Services and pricing promo on their website !!!

Currnet Communication: Choose from one of our SPECIAL HOLIDAY OFFERS.

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BPL OFFERS COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND LONG TERM ENERGY RELIABILITY, SAYS EXPERT STUDY

Washington, DC – United Telecom Council’s (UTC’s) newly released research study, Opportunities for Electric Utilities: Broadband over Power Lines 2006, offers expert information on the market for Broadband over Power Line (BPL) development as it approaches a critical juncture in both large-scale commercial deployments and smart-grid applications. UTC, together with its affiliate United Power Line Council (UPLC) and consulting firm SHS Technologies, examines these opportunities and presents the most complete, accurate and up-to-date information about the state of this industry in this report. Findings show BPL not only as an excellent means to providing commercial services, but also an effective way for utilities to better manage their distribution grids.

The study – the fifth report on BPL by UTC - ties BPL into broader energy industry opportunities and issues such as utility reliability, broadband competition and submarket potential including in-building and next-generation infrastructure. Unlike other offerings, this report gathers information directly from the field, from specific technology providers as well as from UTC’s and UPLC’s membership base of both utilities and vendors. As a result, Opportunities for Electric Utilities: Broadband over Power Lines 2006, provides enlightened and specific recommendations based on real-life trends.

Findings

Once clarity is achieved on BPL standards and regulatory issues, BPL will move forward rapidly in North America, based upon the following factors:
Interoperability between vendors based on industry standards;
Increasing BPL operations providing commercial services to selected communities through telecommunications partners;
Development of a stand-alone, smart-grid applications business model;
More BPL trials/operations providing smart-grid applications;
Longer-range BPL equipment design for smart-grid services and rural areas;
Development of grid automation/intelligent grid projects using BPL large utilities;
Widespread use of BPL for in-building data networks;
Widespread use of BPL for home networking of communications, computing and entertainment systems.
The most striking conclusion of the study is that BPL will serve as a near term solution for some of the nation’s long-term energy policy objectives, such as the energy independence and electric reliability that policymakers hope to achieve by 2010. The report concludes that BPL is a possible “perfect solution” for load management, particularly when pulling double duty for other smart-grid applications such as remote monitoring and predictive maintenance. As such, UTC recommends that utilities plan the automation of their distribution system and the selection of a communications system as a single integrated project, rather than implementing a series of unconnected “islands of automation”. In this scenario, BPL has a secure place in the future of utility communications, whether as a stand-alone system or used in conjunction with other traditional and emerging technologies such as fiber optic and wireless systems.

For more information about the report or to order your copy, contact UTC Research at research@utc.org or 202.872.0030.

World leader in Broadband PowerLine Communication- DS2 at Booth #25907 at CES 2007 !!!

CES 2007
Las Vegas, US: 8-11 January 2006

Previous article: AMBIENT uses DS2 BPL technology which is Ham-friendly

Entergy Corp.(NYSE: ETR) to trial BROADBAND over POWER LINE with Ambient Corp. to Pilot Smart Grid and Triple-Play services !!!

Entergy enters BPL world with Ambient pilot
December 5, 2006

BPL Today exclusive report

Triple play (WEB, streaming VIDEO, VOIP) & smart grid to be demoed


Most BPL deployments worldwide have been -- and the few big ones started with -- a tire-kicking technology trial.
Entergy's long anticipated foray into the BPL world is such a trial deployment with BPL technology firm Ambient.

...
Entergy's big

Entergy is a Fortune 500 firm serving power to about 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, New Orleans and throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Click for full article: here

Related post: Entergy Corp.(NYSE: ETR) Enters BPL World with Ambient Corp. to Pilot Smart Grid and Triple-Play services !!!

Entergy Corp.(NYSE: ETR) Enters BPL World with Ambient Corp. to Pilot Smart Grid and Triple-Play services !!!

Source: www.BPLTODAY.COM
12/05/2006
Entergy enters BPL world with Ambient pilot

Most BPL deployments worldwide have been -- and the few big ones started with -- a tire-kicking technology trial. Entergy's long anticipated foray into the BPL world is such a trial deployment with BPL technology firm Ambient ...


/24-7PressRelease/ - WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2006 -- Most BPL deployments worldwide have been -- and the few big ones started with -- a tire-kicking technology trial. Entergy's long anticipated foray into the BPL world is such a trial deployment with BPL technology firm Ambient.

Anticipated? The firm sent a team of engineers to just about every BPL conference we've covered. Despite the utility's limited initial commitment, the IOU's decision to move ahead after so many of its peers have taken a wait and see attitude supports the premise that BPL really is ready for prime time.

If BPL technology was basically flawed -- as some still seem to believe -- a firm as well informed about BPL as Entergy would arguably be unlikely to invest money and time in a deployment.

But then why is the firm starting with just a toe in the water? It may be excruciating for high-speed technology companies to accept -- but this is how big utilities work. Theirs is usually a long, slow decision process with many hurdles.

The BPL industry may have only just recently reached a point where one firm or another can handle an IOU-sized, footprint-wide order for gear. Vanguards in the US such as TXU, CenterPoint, Duke and the first big US utility to believe in BPL, Cinergy (now merged with Duke), pushed ahead -- but those few haven't triggered a landslide of band-wagoneers.

Around the globe, the big deployments are still too few to create much efficiency in the manufacturing supply chain. Yet the message seems to be sinking in. BPL is for real and it just takes some convincing up the ranks to get it going.

We believe that other 21st century grid technologies being installed now -- such as wireless AMR systems -- are a stopgap and will ultimately be replaced with BPL/fiber/line-of-site fixed wireless hybrid networks with very little reliance on wireless on the outer edge of the networks.

Why? Wireless is fun -- and we mean that professionally -- but it's often saddled with problems that utilities won't want to mess around with long term. BPL is reported again and again to be the most affordable and robust network medium under most network arrangements.

Entergy and Ambient engineers plan to show the IOU's own executives and the rest of the utility industry what the latest technology can do.

Entergy's big
Entergy is a Fortune 500 firm serving power to about 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, New Orleans and throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It's an integrated energy firm with about 30,000 megawatts of generation capacity and it's the second largest nuclear generator in the US.

The IOU's revenue is up near the top three utilities in the US for 2005 as listed at the Energy Information Administration's website. Entergy's utilities are listed separately in the EIA list but added up total US$7.5 billion.

Southern California Edison ($9.4 billion), Pacific Gas & Electric ($9.2 billion) and Florida Power & Light ($9.1 billion) top the list (www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/revenue.htm).

The Entergy pilot will begin during the fourth quarter of this year, said Ambient, and will last six months at Entergy's West Markham office in Little Rock, Ark. Ambient will support Entergy in the design, management and maintenance of the BPL network. Entergy will make its substation and distribution facilities available to provide the power line links.

Doing triple-play?
The pilot will show off what BPL can do to enable the 21st century grid -- but triple play applications are planned, too, Ambient reported. "Entergy [is] one of the nation's most innovative electricity utility providers," said Ambient CEO John Joyce, who's been outspoken about his pickiness of utility partners.

To date Duke Power in Charlotte, NC, and Consolidated Edison in New York have been Ambient's leading utility partners. "We value the opportunity to work with utilities such as Entergy -- that validate the technology for further consideration of deploying -- for the purpose of better serving their customers.

"Ambient continues to work closely with select utilities to ensure the potential growth opportunities for Ambient and the industry in 2007 and beyond." BPL creates a two-way communications network with "the potential to change how a utility operates," reminded Ambient.

That means not just reading meters remotely but advanced metering capabilities. Those include real-time meter reads, locating outages before customers call and proactively monitoring the distribution system to find failing or over-burdened equipment before it causes outages.

Those applications "have significant benefits for utilities," Ambient reminded. "Our objectives in this pilot are to test the technology and its capabilities, validate the economics of deploying BPL and test the ability to use this technology to locate power outages, read electric meters and do remote switching of distribution equipment," explained Peter Lendrum, Entergy's vice president of sales and marketing.

"Ambient was selected after a thorough review process of the different BPL technologies available in the marketplace today.

"We felt Ambient's solution has some potential and are looking forward to appraising the results of this pilot program," he added. "Ambient is very selective in the utilities we choose to work with," said Ram Rao, CTO of Ambient. "Entergy's selection of a rural area for validating our technology was very important to us.

"To demonstrate the viability of bringing BPL to rural communities is a great opportunity.

"Ambient uses the very latest notching technology in its 2nd-generation products to mitigate any potential harmful interference to licensed spectrum users such as the amateur radio operators.

"We understand this is an important issue. We have and intend to continue to ensure we address all issues that arise," reported Rao. Ambient commended "Entergy and its utility partners for showing such progressive thinking by exploring BPL for smart grid applications as they migrate to next-generation distribution systems."

Ambient is a UPA member, the firm reminded, and its headquarters are in Newton, Mass.

For more information, please visit http://www.bpltoday.com/247press.html


Entergy Corporation
- a Fortune 500 firm serving power to about 2.7 million custumers in ARKANSAS, NEW ORLEANS and throughout LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI and TEXAS.

NEC Affiliate to Launch Corporate-Use PLC Modem- boasts a speed of up to 200 megabits per second

NEC Affiliate to Launch Corporate-Use PLC Modem

Tokyo, Dec. 4 (Jiji Press)--NEC Corp. said Monday that Toyo Network Systems Co., a Kawasaki-based affiliate, will start shipping a corporate-use modem for high-speed power line communications on Dec. 18.

The modem, which plugs into a power outlet for broadband Internet access over power lines, boasts a speed of up to 200 megabits per second, NEC said. It also adopted a private-key encryption method developed by International Business Machines Corp. to realize high- level security.

Toyo Network expects to sell 200,000 units of the new modem, priced at for 20,000 yen a unit, over the next three years.

Telkonet Issues Shareholder Letter

GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Telkonet, Inc. (Amex:TKO - News), the leader in providing in-building broadband access over existing electrical wiring, today announced the issuance of the following letter to their shareholders.

December 4, 2006

To our Valued Shareholders,

2006 has been an exciting year for Telkonet. We are continuing to reinforce the Company as the leader in powerline communications technology by adding new capabilities to our product platform, such as energy management, and by developing key strategic relationships. We have invested over two years in the development and positioning of our products for sale within the government sector and, as a result, we believe the Company is finally poised to reap the benefits of these efforts within the federal, state and local government markets. As the year comes to a close, we are reflecting on our significant accomplishments in the past twelve months, anticipating that they will act as a springboard for additional success in the coming year.

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Ambient Corporation`s posted 9 new job opening, as they "continue aggressive development and optimization of BPL Solutions..."

Ambient Corporation Careers... Job Opening !!!

As we continue aggressive development and optimization of our BPL Solutions, and transition to large commercial installations, Ambient will be entering a strong growth phase. We recognize that many more bright and creative people will need to join our excellent staff in order for our vision to become a reality.


Source: http://www.ambientcorp.com/pages/careers.htm