From: Mustafa Akgul (akgul@Bilkent.EDU.TR)
Date: Wed 27 Apr 2005 - 13:03:56 EEST
balar,
elteki uzun yazi, elektrik hatlari uzerinden internet
hizmetinin bugunku durumunu ve potensiyelini, cesitli is
modellerini anlatiyor.
ABD'de Cincinatti bolgesinde aylęk, 30$'a 1 Mbps, 35$'a 2 M,
40$'a ise 3 Mbps veriyor. Cinniati'de 60 bin kullanici
var. Apartmanlar, otel/moteller, kucuk evler ve is
dunyasinda da alici bulmaktadir.
Bakalim, bunun duzenlenmesini bizde kim yapacak ?
Saygilar
Mustafa Akgul
http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/12839?7649
http://www.billingworld.com/archive-print.cfm?ArchiveId=7660
-------------------
Broadband over Power Lines Offers Unique Business Models
and Niches
By John L. Guerra
March, 2005
The world knows broadband can be delivered to residential
subscribers via DSL or through coaxial cable to a DOCSIS
modem. Telecom industry insiders occasionally admit that
some people?because they live in remote regions where
broadband isn't otherwise available--rely on satellite to
get e-mail.
Bring up the practice of delivering broadband services and
voice over an infrastructure owned and operated by the
neighborhood electric company, however, and you'll get the
kind of response reserved for discussions about a mentally
challenged cousin who's housed somewhere out of state.
"We don't deal with that," says a spokesman of a
well-known telecom billing vendor.
However, broadband over power lines (BPL) is quickly
gaining ground as a viable alternative to the other
terrestrial delivery platforms. The idea that the same PC
power cord one plugs into the wall socket can also deliver
the broadband data is far from intuitive, but it works. It
works so well, in fact, that a growing segment of BPL
providers is grabbing a larger share of the market,
primarily in hotels, motels and large apartment complexes,
but also a growing number of single-family homes and
businesses.
The BPL Technology
Moving data over electric lines has been around for years;
power companies run low-frequency signals across their
wires to remotely manage equipment and track power
distribution. Telecom equipment manufacturers like Nortel
and Siemens began to experiment with sending IP packets
over power grids in the 1990s but soon ran into technical
issues. The biggest problem was how to keep packets
rolling when they encountered highly disruptive banks of
transformers on power poles; that problem has been solved
by installing a physical coupler that lets the data bypass
the transformers and move on down the line.
That can also be accomplished by installing Wi-Fi boxes on
the poles to send the data signal on to the customer's
equipment, when possible, rather than around the
transformers. Wi-Fi points on the network, however, can
create bottlenecks. Data flow comes off medium-voltage
lines at 18-24 Mbps; most Wi-Fi equipment is only capable
of 2 Mbps, which creates the chokepoints. Network
engineers hope that newer variations of 802.11G under
development will solve that problem.
Other issues, such as the interference of BPL signals with
ham radio operators and other users of the low-frequency
spectrum, were recently addressed by the FCC in a set of
guidelines. Other regulatory issues surrounding BPL aren't
going to be solved so easily.
The emergence of BPL is becoming more evident each month.
Companies like Amperion, Telkonet, Current Communications,
Maine.net and Fonix lead the way in implementations around
the country. Energy company Synergy and BPL provider
Current Communications rolled out high-speed service to
some 60,000 utility customers in the Cincinnati area.
Current's business plan offers three different speed tiers
of 1 Mbps for $29.95 a month; 2 Mbps at $34.95 per month,
and 3 Mbps for $39.95 a month. Current and Synergy also
announced plans to go after 24 million homes served by
smaller municipal and co-op power companies in rural areas
neglected by cable and DSL broadband providers.
Maine.net, Prospect Street Broadband and the city of
Manassas, Va., launched service to an eventual 15,000
residences and businesses in Northern Virginia at the end
of 2004. Telkonet, with headquarters in Germantown, Md.,
recently announced that it had won contracts to install
BPL in several of the largest Trump properties in New York
City and elsewhere.
BPL providers boast of the ease of deploying their
service?the infrastructure is already in place in the form
of the power grid, and users need only buy and utilize a
HomePlug-compliant IP modem at the wall socket. HomePlug
is the industry group that sets standards for the
plug-and-play BPL wall-socket devices.
Numerous Business Models
informationponsibility for monitoring network
performance and QoS is a bit stickier. That's because
BPL offers several business models that are still being
worked out, and the job could fall to two or three
partners, depending on the arrangement. Power
companies, for instance, can lease their poles and
lines to third-party BPL providers who install the
gateways and routers and act as the ISP; or the BPL
provider can lease its equipment to a third-party ISP
that provides content. At other times, the utility can
be all three: the power company, the BPL provider and
the ISP.
This raises questions about who's responsible for
customer complaints and requires cooperation when
running down network problems. Is it a power outage at
the electric company, a failure of an upstream BPL
router or Wi-Fi component on a pole? That has to be
worked out between the utility, the BPL network owner
and the ISP.
"You have several players in a BPL implementation,"
says Brett Kilbourne, director of regulatory services
and associate counsel for the United Power Line Council
(UPLC), a consortium of BPL providers, ISPs, utility
companies and municipalities involved in the BPL
industry. "
Kilbourne of the UPLC agrees. "With BPL [monitoring]
u've got utility companies that own the power grid that
build their own BPL networks and act as the general
contractor for the ISP that wants to launch BPL
service?the market development model," Kilbourne says.
"Then you have ISPs that go out and buy the BPL
equipment and rely on the utility to mount it, then pay
the utility for use of its infrastructure?a sort of
landlord model."
In Manassas, Communications Technologies Inc. (ComTek)
of Chantilly, Va., runs a BPL network constructed of
equipment and network know-how from Maine.net, while
the town of Manassas supplies the power grid. ComTek
runs the ISP, handles customer service and takes part
in a revenue sharing agreement with the utility.
Maine.net charges Manassas for building the network as
well as further repairs and maintenance of the network.
Meanwhile, in Evergreen, Colo., Maine.net, in
partnership with a company called Hometown Connections,
will shop BPL systems to member utilities of the
American Public Power Association (APPA). Members get a
group rate. Maine.net can match them with ISPs or leave
it up to the utilities to make their own arrangements.
Another variation is Current Communications, a company
that "was created to enter the BPL business," says Jay
Birnbaum, vice president of Current. The company's
founding employees hail from familiar corporate
edifices in telecom, including Hughes Network Systems,
Teligent, Global Crossing, Choice One, and CLECs such
as Frontier. Primarily begun as a developer of BPL
equipment, Current is also an ISP; it plans to roll out
VoIP commercially in the first half of 2005. "Current
is the ISP as well as the developer of the network
pipe," Birnbaum says. "We design and build out the
physical infrastructure, then provide the services to
the end-user," Birnbaum says.
Who Handles Network Monitoring?
Each business arrangement has a unique network
management setup?power companies are responsible for
their portion of the network, the power grid, while the
BPL network engineers or the ISP have the job of
maintaining the health of the telecom network.
Power companies are usually blessed with good
communications systems. Right now, by and large the
utilities have a lot of fiber connectivity, primarily
for critical infrastructure communications and
monitoring the substations. Power companies use them
for voice, too. "There are highly reliable circuits,
running back and forth along their power grid, telling
network managers in a moment's notice what the problems
are before a blackout occurs," Kilbourne says.
Current's NOC is in Germantown, Md., and relies on its
custom-built network monitoring system called CT View.
By measuring radio frequency levels within its BPL
network, Current can determine whether its equipment is
malfunctioning when network troubles occur. If the
equipment is working properly, Current notifies the
power company that the electric grid may be having
problems. "We have a state-of-the-art network operation
center; we can actually see down into the customer's
modem," Birnbaum says. "We know if the BPL components
are not affected, there must be something wrong
upstream of that and that it's on the power grid."
If Current engineers can't see into the modem, it
indicates a problem with Current equipment. Using CT
View, the company measures traffic flow to spot
bottlenecks or look for jitter or dropped
packets-traditional QoS determinants.
Features
Broadband over Power Lines Offers Unique Business
Models and Niches
By John L. Guerra
March, 2005
The world knows broadband can be delivered to
residential subscribers via DSL or through coaxial
cable to a DOCSIS modem. Telecom industry insiders
occasionally admit that some people?because they
live in remote regions where broadband isn't
otherwise available--rely on satellite to get
e-mail.
Bring up the practice of delivering broadband
services and voice over an infrastructure owned
and operated by the neighborhood electric company,
however, and you'll get the kind of response
reserved for discussions about a mentally
challenged cousin who's housed somewhere out of
state.
"We don't deal with that," says a spokesman of a
well-known telecom billing vendor.
However, broadband over power lines (BPL) is
quickly gaining ground as a viable alternative to
the other terrestrial delivery platforms. The idea
that the same PC power cord one plugs into the
wall socket can also deliver the broadband data is
far from intuitive, but it works. It works so
well, in fact, that a growing segment of BPL
providers is grabbing a larger share of the
market, primarily in hotels, motels and large
apartment complexes, but also a growing number of
single-family homes and businesses.
The BPL Technology
Moving data over electric lines has been around
for years; power companies run low-frequency
signals across their wires to remotely manage
equipment and track power distribution. Telecom
equipment manufacturers like Nortel and Siemens
began to experiment with sending IP packets over
power grids in the 1990s but soon ran into
technical issues. The biggest problem was how to
keep packets rolling when they encountered highly
disruptive banks of transformers on power poles;
that problem has been solved by installing a
physical coupler that lets the data bypass the
transformers and move on down the line.
That can also be accomplished by installing Wi-Fi
boxes on the poles to send the data signal on to
the customer's equipment, when possible, rather
than around the transformers. Wi-Fi points on the
network, however, can create bottlenecks. Data
flow comes off medium-voltage lines at 18-24 Mbps;
most Wi-Fi equipment is only capable of 2 Mbps,
which creates the chokepoints. Network engineers
hope that newer variations of 802.11G under
development will solve that problem.
Other issues, such as the interference of BPL
signals with ham radio operators and other users
of the low-frequency spectrum, were recently
addressed by the FCC in a set of guidelines. Other
regulatory issues surrounding BPL aren't going to
be solved so easily.
The emergence of BPL is becoming more evident each
month. Companies like Amperion, Telkonet, Current
Communications, Maine.net and Fonix lead the way
in implementations around the country. Energy
company Synergy and BPL provider Current
Communications rolled out high-speed service to
some 60,000 utility customers in the Cincinnati
area. Current's business plan offers three
different speed tiers of 1 Mbps for $29.95 a
month; 2 Mbps at $34.95 per month, and 3 Mbps for
$39.95 a month. Current and Synergy also announced
plans to go after 24 million homes served by
smaller municipal and co-op power companies in
rural areas neglected by cable and DSL broadband
providers.
Maine.net, Prospect Street Broadband and the city
of Manassas, Va., launched service to an eventual
15,000 residences and businesses in Northern
Virginia at the end of 2004. Telkonet, with
headquarters in Germantown, Md., recently
announced that it had won contracts to install BPL
in several of the largest Trump properties in New
York City and elsewhere.
BPL providers boast of the ease of deploying their
service?the infrastructure is already in place in
the form of the power grid, and users need only
buy and utilize a HomePlug-compliant IP modem at
the wall socket. HomePlug is the industry group
that sets standards for the plug-and-play BPL
wall-socket devices.
Numerous Business Models
But the responsibility for monitoring network
performance and QoS is a bit stickier. That's
because BPL offers several business models that
are still being worked out, and the job could fall
to two or three partners, depending on the
arrangement. Power companies, for instance, can
lease their poles and lines to third-party BPL
providers who install the gateways and routers and
act as the ISP; or the BPL provider can lease its
equipment to a third-party ISP that provides
content. At other times, the utility can be all
three: the power company, the BPL provider and the
ISP.
This raises questions about who's responsible for
customer complaints and requires cooperation when
running down network problems. Is it a power
outage at the electric company, a failure of an
upstream BPL router or Wi-Fi component on a pole?
That has to be worked out between the utility, the
BPL network owner and the ISP.
"You have several players in a BPL
implementation," says Brett Kilbourne, director of
regulatory services and associate counsel for the
United Power Line Council (UPLC), a consortium of
BPL providers, ISPs, utility companies and
municipalities involved in the BPL industry.
"You've got utility companies that own the power
grid that build their own BPL networks and act as
the general contractor for the ISP that wants to
launch BPL service?the market development model,"
Kilbourne says. "Then you have ISPs that go out
and buy the BPL equipment and rely on the utility
to mount it, then pay the utility for use of its
infrastructure?a sort of landlord model."
In Manassas, Communications Technologies Inc.
(ComTek) of Chantilly, Va., runs a BPL network
constructed of equipment and network know-how from
Maine.net, while the town of Manassas supplies the
power grid. ComTek runs the ISP, handles customer
service and takes part in a revenue sharing
agreement with the utility. Maine.net charges
Manassas for building the network as well as
further repairs and maintenance of the network.
Meanwhile, in Evergreen, Colo., Maine.net, in
partnership with a company called Hometown
Connections, will shop BPL systems to member
utilities of the American Public Power Association
(APPA). Members get a group rate. Maine.net can
match them with ISPs or leave it up to the
utilities to make their own arrangements.
Another variation is Current Communications, a
company that "was created to enter the BPL
business," says Jay Birnbaum, vice president of
Current. The company's founding employees hail
from familiar corporate edifices in telecom,
including Hughes Network Systems, Teligent, Global
Crossing, Choice One, and CLECs such as Frontier.
Primarily begun as a developer of BPL equipment,
Current is also an ISP; it plans to roll out VoIP
commercially in the first half of 2005. "Current
is the ISP as well as the developer of the network
pipe," Birnbaum says. "We design and build out the
physical infrastructure, then provide the services
to the end-user," Birnbaum says.
Who Handles Network Monitoring?
Each business arrangement has a unique network
management setup?power companies are responsible
for their portion of the network, the power grid,
while the BPL network engineers or the ISP have
the job of maintaining the health of the telecom
network.
Power companies are usually blessed with good
communications systems. Right now, by and large
the utilities have a lot of fiber connectivity,
primarily for critical infrastructure
communications and monitoring the substations.
Power companies use them for voice, too. "There
are highly reliable circuits, running back and
forth along their power grid, telling network
managers in a moment's notice what the problems
are before a blackout occurs," Kilbourne says.
Current's NOC is in Germantown, Md., and relies on
its custom-built network monitoring system called
CT View. By measuring radio frequency levels
within its BPL network, Current can determine
whether its equipment is malfunctioning when
network troubles occur. If the equipment is
working properly, Current notifies the power
company that the electric grid may be having
problems. "We have a state-of-the-art network
operation center; we can actually see down into
the customer's modem," Birnbaum says. "We know if
the BPL components are not affected, there must be
something wrong upstream of that and that it's on
the power grid."
If Current engineers can't see into the modem, it
indicates a problem with Current equipment. Using
CT View, the company measures traffic flow to spot
bottlenecks or look for jitter or dropped
packets?traditional QoS determinants.
Birnbaum says power companies are slow to learn of
power outages on their own. "The only way the
power company knows [there's a power outage] is
when its customers call in. And how do they know
when the power comes back on, if no one has called
them to let them know? They have to wait around
for the sun to set and see which lights come on.
It's an expensive proposition to keep those trucks
and line personnel waiting around idle while on
the clock. Right now it's more of a manual
process."
Birnbaum's interpretation of a power company's
abilities aside, it's true that BPL providers can
help power companies get to problem points faster.
Pinpointing problems on large power grids often
requires "windshield time," a tongue-in-cheek term
for driving around in a bucket truck looking up at
power poles to spot burst switches or burnt wires
indicating a downed network. By working closely
with BPL providers, "devices such as automatic
alarms on the BPL equipment or the power grid side
eliminate the need for a phone call to alert the
power company," Birnbaum says. "We monitor our
network and in doing so the corresponding portions
of the utility network. Some utility network
attributes are measured directly, like the voltage
at a given location. Others are derived by what
happens to our network components, such as outage
information."
you can see where that outage has occurred and when it
occurred," he says. "The other neat thing, because BPL
uses the wire itself, you can predict outages before
they happen, because you notice variations in the power
signal?clear signs that a failure is about to occur."
OSS and Inventory
The traditional functions of the back office are taken
care of in traditional ways; Current's back office, for
instance, is located in Rochester, N.Y., and staff can
handle preordering, ordering, provisioning, and
trouble-ticketing via phone or online. It plans to sell
VoIP as well as the usual value-adds such as three-way
calling, conference calling and caller ID. Enterprise
customers can order and provision additional bandwidth
for specific dates and times for Webinars or other
online streaming communications.
BPL delivery is a last-mile service; that is, transport
of Internet content as well as internal OSS functions
occur on traditional fiber or T-1 lines as close to the
customer as possible and are then moved onto the BPL
platform. It makes technical sense, too, in that you
don't want to have too many repeaters between the T-1
data interface and the customer farther down the row of
utility poles. In other words, provisioning and traffic
flow decisions are made before the traffic hits the
power line layer.
"We have all the OSS capabilities," Birnbaum says, "but
it's not attached on points along the power line
system; we use traditional, automated communications on
a network separate from that. We perform full QoS
management and have upgraded our network for QoS
prioritization of voice traffic. Everything in the back
office is done normally."
When a BPL signal interferes with other low-frequency
electronic devices in a neighborhood or office
building?such as garage door openers, ham radio
operators and even CD players?finding the owner of that
equipment becomes important. To that end, the BPL
industry and the FCC are working on a database that
lists each installed BPL device, unit or box on a given
pole in each state of the union. That way, engineers
who come across questionable BPL equipment can key in a
ZIP code, building address or other identifying
information, and learn the name and address of the
company that owns the equipment. "It would include
information such as the set of frequencies the devices
use and the name and phone number of a contact at the
BPL provider," Kilbourne says.
Birnbaum at Current underscores his point that his
company's network devices don't operate in the spectrum
that interferes with ham radios or other devices.
"Current has chosen a system that precludes us from
using any frequency that's been allocated to ham
radios. None of the frequencies are in the ham and
amateur radio bands," he says. "The radio frequency
that leaks off the wires won't include any ham radio
frequencies."
In addition, "As to QoS, the utility network has no
effect on the voice or data packets," he says. "Our
traffic runs at different frequencies than the 60 hertz
on which electricity travels."
Managing Multi-Unit Residences
Telkonet doesn't consider itself a BPL provider, says
Al Diehl, executive vice president of sales engineering
for vertical markets. The company is a builder of
commercial power line networks, a power line
communications (PLC) provider. Those who manage those
power line communications networks provide the BPL
service to third-party ISPs. The difference in
definitions is important when it comes to educating
customers about the partners' roles.
Telkonet's market consists chiefly of hotels, motels,
apartments, condominiums and other multiple-dwelling
units (MDUs) that install PLC networks. Its
installations make a lot of sense to apartment
management companies, Diehl says, because every wall
socket throughout the large apartment buildings becomes
a data port, whether the power socket is in the
building's atrium, lobby or poolside?which gives
residents almost the same flexibility as a Wi-Fi
network, but with the security of a wireline data
connection.
Telkonet's installations consist of three main
elements, Diehl says.
* "Our PLC gateway is the control center that can
support up to 1,024 users; each of those users'
connections is isolated and encrypted."
* The second component is a coupler device
that's connected to the gateway via coaxial
cable connection in a building's power cage,
usually in an electric closet or basement. The
coupler consists of four electrical wires
attached to the meter bank or breaker panels of
a commercial building; once hooked in, "every
electrical outlet serviced by that meter bank
or breaker panel becomes the equivalent of a
data port," Diehl says. "The building is ready
to go."
* The end-user gets a HomePlug-compliant
wall-socket modem resembling a fancy power
cord plug.
Telkonet's version of HomePlug is called
Intelligent Bridge, or iBridge for short.
"At the front side of the iBridge is an
Ethernet connection," Diehl says. The
end-user simply plugs the adapter into the
wall and the Ethernet cable on the other
end into the PC or other IP enabled device,
and it's good to go. "The user is able to
move from outlet to outlet within the
building (apartment), outside on their
balcony, or poolside or common area plugged
into the power," Diehl says.
Doing Business with MDUs
Telkonet is earning Federal Information
Processing Standards (FIPS) certification
so it can compete for federal
contracts?it's eyeing the Navy, for
instance, where it wants to install its
technology aboard ships having only a few
Internet hookups for thousands of sailors.
("There's a digital divide on aircraft
carriers," Diehl says. "While officers have
their own Internet access, sailors have to
wait in line for hours for access to a few
Internet stations.")
The 5-year-old company has been successful
in the hospitality industry, including
among its customers such hotel chains as
Choice Hotels, Historic Hotels of America,
Best Value Hotels and Hospitality
International, a group of 150 hotels in 38
states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Telkonet also installs its BPL networks in
the Sandman Group of hotels in Western
Canada.
Not only that, but Telkonet has grabbed a
healthy portion of the apartment
business?some "35 apartment communities,"
Diehl says. In Bethesda, Md., for instance,
the Whitney apartments, made up of old and
new buildings, are already served by
Comcast and Verizon, but the apartment
managers wanted to give residents a third
choice for Internet access and considered
BPL to be that alternative, he says.
In early January, MST?Telkonet's ISP
partner in New York City?won contracts to
deploy PLC/BPL technology in the Trump
organization's buildings in New York,
including the Trump Place along the Hudson
River, Trump International and Trump Plaza
in Manhattan.
MST, which brands its services as New
Vision Broadband, is marketed to new
residents as they move into the exclusive
addresses. "As residents move in," Diehl
says, "iBridge is distributed with the
welcome pack when each new resident enters
his apartment."
The resident goes up to his new apartment,
fills out the application for the BPL
service, and can immediately plug the
iBridge device into any outlet and get
online, Diehl says. "There's instant
gratification," he says, "as opposed to
cable and other ISPs, where you have to
wait for the cable modem to be shipped."
Billing with Third Partners
The billing relationship between Telkonet
and hotel chains is based on the number of
rooms?each is considered a "subscription"
regardless of who's in the room. "We
provide the backbone; the hotel pays for
installation and the use of a licensed
electrician?which is required by law,"
Diehl says. "After that we charge a
monthly, per-property subscription fee to
the hotel."
As for getting the Internet to the hotels
for conversion to the BPL system, most
hotels already have some form of broadband
connectivity, often a T-1 for their
reservation systems and other
communications between the chain's
corporate offices and individual hotels.
The customer base is nomadic, with some
staying a single night up to a week in the
case of hotel rooms. BPL service is
automatically available as a room amenity;
that is, it's accounted for in the hotel
chain's existing billing system for booking
rooms, charging room service and other
amenities, based on room number and the
customer's credit card information.
BPL can be included in the price of the
room ("free Internet service"), while the
BPL provider charges the motel chain a flat
monthly rate based on the number of rooms
hooked up in that hotel or throughout the
chain.
When the motel charges for Internet use,
the billing systems used for charging for
the Internet are often separate from the
hotel's reservation and credit card billing
system used during check-in. "When hotels
do charge," Diehl says, "they use hotel
Internet subscriber management systems such
as IP3 and Nomadix for those services."
According to Nomadix, its system can
converge with a hotel's telephone call
accounting programs for tracking
long-distance calls from hotel room phones
with Internet access billing.
In apartment complexes, management
companies pay Telkonet for installing the
PLC system; the Internet delivery agreement
is between the ISP and the resident. "In
the case of apartments, ISP providers
provide the billing, and almost every
solution provider has an online billing
system that uses credit card billing,"
Diehl says.
Customer account management is trickier,
too, for apartment hookups, he says. Owners
of single-family homes might sign
long-standing contracts, but apartment
residents often move on after a year.
Tracking these "nomadic" subscribers, who
may or might not pay their final monthly
bill, is problematic. "The ISP doesn't have
long- term contracts in apartment
communities," Diehl says. "They're often
offering service on a month-to-month
basis."
Managing Data in the Hotel Room
Telkonet performs its billing manually for
the time being, Diehl says, though it has a
SalesLogix system on hand that can
automatically deduct Internet charges from
a subscriber's credit card.
The daily or monthly Internet billing is
performed by the ISP. As for collecting
from hotels for the installation in each
room, Telkonet can handle that manually for
now, Diehl says.
For QoS, Telkonet relies on its NOC. "We
can manage any facility from our location,
as can our ISP partners," he says. "We can
see any iBridge that's connected; we have a
GUI interface as part of our system to see
into our system all the way into the hotel
rooms. We can turn the service off right
away if somebody's not paying their bill or
if their device is infected with a virus.
It comes in handy, especially when a
subscriber tries to set up an ISP in his
apartment."
Great Opportunities Await
So far, it seems as if the future of BPL is
assured; there are no gray clouds on the
horizon. It's just a matter of selling an
"off-the-wall" Internet technology to the
public and municipalities.
It's less expensive for CLECs looking for a
way to deliver voice. "Instead of buying
the entire loop, they can save a lot of
money doing it over the electric grid,"
says Kilbourne at the UPLC. "You can run
data over BPL, you can run voice over BPL,
anything."
Towns and cities such as Manassas are
starting to rely on the power line
technology to manage their infrastructure.
BPL gives Manassas access to its traffic
lights, so it can change traffic flow at
different times of the day to avoid
backups.
Ed Thomas, chief engineer in the FCC's
Office of Engineering and Technology, says
that BPL technology can be used to control
just about anything with a transducer in
it.
"You can tap into street lamps to light up
public areas," he says. "You can install it
in train stations, along the power lines
that run along the tracks, so people can
work on their laptops in the terminals.
"Anything that consumes electricity can be
given an IP address. Those transducers,
when linked to the IP, can do almost
anything?from turning on the air
conditioning in one's home from a distance,
to informing a homeowner that his heating
back at home has failed while he's at the
office. It can be used to control machinery
on a shop floor without a physical LAN. The
only thing that's limited is the designer's
imagination."
All that's required is to convince the
unwashed in the telecom industry who remain
nonchalant about this much-ignored
technology.
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