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Broadband to the People: FCC Adopts BPL
Business Wire ^ | 10/14/2004 | Business Wire

Posted on 10/14/2004 9:52:31 AM PDT by batmast

FCC Adopts Milestone Decision for Broadband over Powerlines; BPL Will Transform US Electric Grid into Broadband Third Wire, Promote Competition and Enhance Electric Service for Consumers

WASHINGTON & GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 14, 2004--In a groundbreaking decision, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today unanimously affirmed the widespread deployment of Broadband over Powerline (BPL) services and technology. BPL will provide consumers nationwide with high-speed Internet access through their existing electrical outlets. BPL also assists utilities with critical intelligence to enhance the security, reliability and efficiency of the U.S. electric power grid.

"This is one of the defining moments for the widespread adoption of broadband by Americans, and a great testament to the FCC's leadership and to the cooperation and support of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Today's FCC decision is as significant as the Commission's decision a decade ago to foster competition in the mobile telephone and video programming businesses, through PCS and direct broadcast satellite licensing," said William Berkman, Chairman of CURRENT Communications Group, a BPL service operator in the residential and small business markets. "The fact is that BPL does 'double duty,' enabling two critical infrastructure improvements - it gives our nation a viable new broadband alternative and it enables significant modernization of the nation's electric distribution system."

Today's FCC decision confirms the application of existing technical rules to BPL deployments and implements additional rules to facilitate continued BPL roll-outs, marking the conclusion of a nearly two-year rulemaking process. Incorporating these rules, BPL will provide for significantly more efficient and reliable electric distribution networks nationwide in a variety of ways, including:

-- Automated outage and restoration detection;

-- Automated meter reading;

-- Load management through remote monitoring and operation of switches, transformers and other electric utility network equipment;

-- Remote capability to connect and disconnect electrical service;

-- More efficient demand-side management programs.

CURRENT BPL provides homes and small businesses with high-quality broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services through a joint venture in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana with Cinergy Corp. (NYSE: CIN), the utility holding and diversified energy company. The service will pass approximately 50,000 homes by year-end. Through a second joint venture with Cinergy, known as ACcess Broadband, CURRENT will deploy BPL to smaller municipal and cooperatively owned power companies covering 24 million customers across the United States.

"We, and Cinergy customers, have been thrilled with the results of our BPL service," said William J. Grealis, Executive Vice President of Cinergy. "The CURRENT Broadband(TM) service bridges the 'last mile' from the electric distribution network into customers' homes without the need to install additional wires and leverages the widely accepted and easy-to-use HomePlug(R) modem standard for in-home networking. It's enabled us to provide customers with affordable, user-friendly Internet service. At the same time, BPL will enable us to improve the performance of our core electric network without significant incremental capital investment."

"The future is bright for BPL," said Mr. Berkman of CURRENT. "BPL is a high-quality alternative that transforms every in-home power outlet into a broadband outlet and will help bridge the gap in services to America's underserved communities. Furthermore, it enables electric utilities to enhance their systems' reliability and broaden their service offerings efficiently through a single general communications network built on their existing infrastructure."

About CURRENT Communications Group, LLC

CURRENT Communications Group, LLC is a privately held company based in Germantown, Maryland. CURRENT is a residential and small business broadband service operator and designs, builds and provides technology and innovative power line equipment and solutions for delivering broadband services domestically and internationally. CURRENT was founded by Liberty Associated Partners, LP, an investment partnership managed by principals with extensive investment and operating experience in telecommunications, media, Internet and related technologies. Through Associated Group, LLC, these principals, along with Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L), are the primary investors in Liberty Associated Partners. CURRENT is also backed by EnerTech Capital and Cinergy Corp. (NYSE: CIN). EnerTech Capital is a venture capital firm focused on investing in software and technologies that service the energy and communications markets. Many of the investors in EnerTech Capital's funds are major U.S. and international utilities. Additional information about CURRENT is available at www.current.net and www.currentgroup.com.

About Cinergy Corporation

Cinergy Corp. has a balanced, integrated portfolio consisting of two core businesses: regulated operations and commercial businesses. Cinergy's regulated public utilities in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky serve 1.5 million electric customers and about 500,000 gas customers. In addition, its Indiana regulated company owns 7,000 megawatts of generation. Cinergy's competitive commercial businesses have 6,300 megawatts of generating capacity with a profitable balance of stable existing customer portfolios, new customer origination, marketing and trading, and industrial-site cogeneration. Cinergy's integrated businesses make it a Midwest leader in providing both low-cost generation and reliable electric and gas service.

Contacts

CURRENT Communications Jay Birnbaum, 301-515-7617 or Qorvis Communications Maura Corbett / Brian Lustig 202-448-3132 / 703-744-7826 or Kekst and Company Eric Berman, 212-521-4894


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: broadband; fcc; fccbpl; internet
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To: orangelobster

I would have to sat that Michael Powell is a case of nepotism at it's worst.


81 posted on 10/14/2004 2:40:13 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: batmast

As soon as I get harmful interference on the ham bands that I can trace to BPL, I'll file a 1 Billion $$$ lawsuit against the utility and the FCC.


82 posted on 10/14/2004 3:20:39 PM PDT by clee1 (Islam is a deadly plague; liberalism is the AIDS virus that prevents us from defending ourselves.)
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To: dljordan

If this question is way too ignorant, I apologize in advance. Can the power grid be used to transmit video and audio? Will this replace cable or satellite?


83 posted on 10/14/2004 3:25:01 PM PDT by verifythentrust
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To: BurbankKarl

> ...turn the radios on while on your computers and see
> the distances where the interfences starts.

It's actually not as noisy as I expected. A pocket AM
radio works fine as long as it's 18in or more from the
monitor.

My guess is that the basic problem with BPL is that the
carrier wires aren't twisted-pair (unlike Cat3/5/6), so
the signal radiation is not self-cancelling. It may not
even be balanced.


84 posted on 10/14/2004 3:30:42 PM PDT by Boundless
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To: dljordan
Everyone is talking about the effect on Shortwave, HAM etc etc. There will be one other HUGE VICTIM if BPL cripples the AM bands ---- TALK RADIO!!!!

Almost all Talk Radio -- Rush, Hannity, Boortz, etc etc etc is carried on the AM Band. Disable the AM Band you disable Talk Radio.

85 posted on 10/14/2004 3:37:44 PM PDT by commish (Freedom Tastes Sweetest to Those Who Have Fought to Preserve It)
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To: Calvin Locke

Wait til the new refrigerators scan the UPC labels of your food, and beam them back to the databases! Will you be scared then?

When your health insurance company sees a 12 pack of beer located in your refrigerator?


86 posted on 10/14/2004 3:45:14 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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To: commish

Well, of course. It will affect all of these. I'm a huge fan of talk radio and I will be pretty p*ssed if I can't hear my shows. That might be part of the overall plan anyway. They force you off the am bands and onto the internet.


87 posted on 10/14/2004 3:51:06 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: verifythentrust

Taht's something I will leave to the more electronically erudite of our FR friends. I don't however see why it couldn't.


88 posted on 10/14/2004 3:52:13 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: dljordan
They force you off the am bands and onto the internet.

Where they can monitor, and regulate, and classify as political and hate rhetoric, etc etc etc.

Hate to sount tin-foilish, but I do not trust the government to keep thier hands out of the pot.

89 posted on 10/14/2004 3:57:19 PM PDT by commish (Freedom Tastes Sweetest to Those Who Have Fought to Preserve It)
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To: Boundless
My guess is that the basic problem with BPL is that the carrier wires aren't twisted-pair (unlike Cat3/5/6), so the signal radiation is not self-cancelling. It may not even be balanced.

That's the crux of the matter. It's the transmission lines acting as antennas. DSL and cable use balanced and shielded transmission lines that don't radiate significantly. That's why they haven't been a problem. And of course satellite and other wireless ISP services use frequency bands specifically allocated to them.

My prediction with BPL is it won't fly because of the interference. If the FCC regulates it to point where it doesn't interfere, then its cost advantage will be gone, and the power companies will can it by themselves.

I also predict it will not be the panacea that internet users in the boonies are hoping for. They'll still be last on the list because it will cost to install it on those outlying parts of the power grid. It probably doesn't offer any advantage over extending DSL or cable to the rural areas. If you are really out in the boonies, your best hope is some form of advanced terrestrial wireless internet (satellite works, too, of course, but the long latency hurts internet responsiveness).

90 posted on 10/14/2004 4:14:25 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Fatalis
When near your computer, the interference you hear will be from radiated harmonics. If your screen refreshes at 60 Hz, you will find heavy harmonics at 600 KHz and 1200 KHz on the dial. Your monitor is built with shielding to suppress this kind of radiation to acceptable levels. The BPL signal is sent down long power lines that are suspended on overhead transmission lines. It will be a broad range of frequencies and harmonics of those frequencies. Finding a quiet, usable frequency will be difficult for those who have a choice. For fixed frequency services, the interference will degrade or destroy the ability to use the frequencies.

Hold a standard AM radio near your monitor. Rotate it around so the internal loopstick antenna can pick up the signal. Tune across the band. Listen to garbage your own monitor emits. BPL will be worse than that and will be everywhere an electric powerline runs.

91 posted on 10/14/2004 5:09:12 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Boundless
The cable industry is every vigilant to find leaks in their wiring. The broadband signal distributed by the cable companies has overlaps on public service frequencies. A "leak" can overwhelm the receiver of a radio in the vicinity and make it impossible to hear the intended signal over the air. BPL doesn't even pretend to keep the signal bottled up like the cable operators. Instead, they will transmit broadband signals over open wires. The electric grid becomes a giant antenna farm to distribute BPL digital noise.
92 posted on 10/14/2004 5:18:29 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: cynwoody
There is a large area south of Pocatello, Idaho that can't get DSL. They can get passable service from 802.11b from a few pole mounted sites. The 802.16 WiMAX equipment is being manufactured as we speak. It provides 70 MB/sec service to a 30 mile radius around the antenna. That makes a lot more sense than BPL.
93 posted on 10/14/2004 5:22:06 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: thefactor

try DIRECWAY......
works as advertised


94 posted on 10/14/2004 5:35:40 PM PDT by pointsal
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To: Musket

"I wonder what a BPL Network Infrastructure looks like."

Stick your finger in a light socket while looking in a mirror and you will have a good idea! </sarcasm>


95 posted on 10/14/2004 5:37:33 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: Myrddin

This is horrible, just horrible. I think BPL will have a problem of limited bandwidth and this will make it impractical, but they will still force it on us. The power lines were never meant to carry radio signals (digital or otherwise). I imagine they will have to have lots of repeaters to boost the signals -- this is all so inefficient and it will limit bandwidth and speed while at the same time ruining radio communication. It does sound like the big business and big government types have found a perfect way to kill off AM radio, amateur radio and shortwave listening all in one "solution." An inferior mode of transmitting data for the Internet that, oh by the way, will ruin other modes of communication.


96 posted on 10/14/2004 6:02:09 PM PDT by Wilhelm Tell (Lurking since 1997!)
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To: dalereed

Thanks. I'll give that a try.;-)


97 posted on 10/14/2004 6:26:54 PM PDT by Musket
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To: Wilhelm Tell

"It does sound like the big business and big government types have found a perfect way to kill off AM radio"

Would you believe it's the liberals way of eliminating right wing talk shows that they can't compete with.


98 posted on 10/14/2004 6:33:07 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: batmast

ping for later


99 posted on 10/14/2004 6:45:54 PM PDT by Big Giant Head ( < Roast Pork?!?>)
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To: BurbankKarl
Will you be scared then?

I wonder if Ted Kazcinsky's piece of land is still available?

Would the FBI move his shack back for me?

100 posted on 10/14/2004 6:59:59 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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