Internet Connectivity - Connecting Over Electrical Power Lines

CONNECTING OVER ELECTRICAL POWER LINES

Electrical power lines offer the possibility of high-speed Internet access. With such access, households and buildings with multiple users would be able to access the Internet through power sockets. In the first quarter of 2001, Germany's biggest power utility, RWE, announced it would offer PowerNet—high-speed Internet access over electrical power lines—to some 20,000 customers by the end of the year in association with Swiss partner Ascom. The announcement came just after German electronics and engineering company Siemens said it would withdraw from the development of power line access.

With transmission speeds of up to two megabits per second, an electrical power line connection can process e-mail at rates 30 times faster than an ISDN connection. MP3 music files can be downloaded in less than 20 seconds over a power line connection. The increased bandwidth of a power line connection enables it to handle a higher volume of Internet traffic as well as more complex services, such as data, video, and audio, and even 3-D shopping.

Power line access faces several technological and regulatory hurdles before it becomes a reality. German officials had not yet given regulatory approval to Internet access over power lines. Technological hurdles are complicated by electrical transformers and other equipment. In developing countries, where electricity is more widespread than telephone connections, Internet access over electrical power lines could result in much greater Internet usage. In developed nations, Internet access over electrical power lines could provide a new revenue stream to electrical utility companies.

However, as of mid-2001 both Nortel and Siemens had abandoned the electrical power line market. One factor affecting their decision may have been that power lines are considered a "noisy" medium with fewer capabilities than copper loops, wireless, and cable systems. Siemens, for its part, planned on focusing its efforts on traditional broadband access over telephone lines.