Newsletters

March 2006
Electric Internet Access
Just Plug It In

BPL, or Broadband over Power Lines is a technology whereby radio signals can be carried over existing power lines and distributed to homes and businesses. Users plug a device into an electrical outlet in order to get internet access. In the US and UK and a few other foreign countries, carriers are already providing this service to consumers as an alternative to DSL and cable. BPL trials have provided alternative internet options to over a million customers including areas of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Maryland.

I am certainly no expert in this area, but it was interesting to note that although there have been numerous naysayers, Google, Goldman Sachs and the Hearst Corporation reportedly together invested $100 million in Current Communications Group last year. Current Communications, based in Maryland, provides broadband over power lines/BPL. According to Current, BPL offers a faster alternative for voice, video and data services. Toward the end of 2005, IBM also announced that it would join CenterPoint Energy of Houston to build a BPL network. However, in 1999, industry giant Nortel Networks and the British energy company United Utilities scrapped a two-year BPL endeavor.

Though phone companies have been required to make their DSL networks available to Internet service resellers at rates mandated by the government, cable providers didn’t have to similarly open their networks to potentially competing ISP’s due to a ruling by the US Supreme Court last year. Following the Supreme Court decision, the FCC changed the rules for phone companies as well, so ISP’s will likely look to opportunities in BPL.

BPL isn’t new. Experiments with power line communication go back to the 1950’s. In the past, detractors have claimed that BPL is costly and impractical. A power company needs equipment on each transformer to bridge the data and unlike Europe where BPL was first introduced, the voltages in the US are lower and people are more spread out. This means far fewer customers on a typical transformer. However, one apparent benefit of BPL is the ability to provide internet access to rural areas.

As I understand it, BPL uses high frequency (in the range between 3 and 30 megahertz) just like ham or amateur radio operators, but on a much wider range of frequencies. The High Frequency spectrum has the ability to propagate signals, even weak ones, over great distances. Amateur radio was instrumental in saving hundreds of lives following Hurricane Katrina with ham operators volunteering from points near and far. Hams don’t need cell towers, phone switching centers, or internet access, all of which were destroyed by the storm. Ham radio has an established history of working with official emergency management operations.

Although the FCC approved rules aimed at limiting BPL’s interference with licensed radio operators in 2004, there seems to be a lot of debate concerning the ability of BPL technology to avoid such interference. Moreover, the technology for generation of radio signals produces not only signals on the intended frequencies of operation, but also “harmonic” signals on multiples of the intended frequencies, according to a document filed before the FCC by CQ Communications, a major publisher for the personal radio community. FCC rules say that these harmonic signals must be significantly attenuated before they leave the transmitter. CQ Communications’ claims that BPL interference potential is understated and that proposed methods for dealing with interference are inadequate. The CQ Communications FCC submission outlines various reasons for their position, including how BPL signals can mix with signals from a nearby transmitter to produce new signals in other bands causing interference to CB, public safety and aircraft communications.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, also filed comments with the FCC and expressed “grave concerns” stating that “FEMA has concluded that introduction of unwanted interference from the implementation of BPL technology into the high frequency radio spectrum will result in significant detriments to the operation of FEMA radio systems such as FNARS,” the agency’s large, high frequency, national radio system.

The topic of BPL is complex and the various arguments, both pro and con, are compelling. Regardless of these controversies, it appears that BPL is on the way and enthusiasts assure that consumers will benefit from additional competitive options. Certainly power companies hope to find a new and lucrative source of revenue. TXU Electric Delivery and Current Communications Group are partnering to introduce BPL service in Texas this year at rates and speeds supposed to be comparable to DSL and cable. Around two million residences and businesses, primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, will be able to subscribe to Current's BPL services, including VoIP (Voice over IP).