Houston Tries 'Power-ful' Internet
About 30 residents of Houston connect to the Internet by plugging a computer modem into power outlets in their homes, testing technology that advocates say could compete with DSL or cable-modem broadband service.
The residents use the same system to make phone calls over the Internet. They are customers of Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc., the latest utility to test the technology.
It's called Broadband over Power Line or BPL, says CBSNews.com Technology Consultant Larry Magid, and it uses the power grid to deliver data along with electricity. Just as phone and cable wires have excess capacity not needed to carry voice or TV, power lines have enough headroom to deliver data as well.
The experiment has been under way since June and will run through August, officials said. CenterPoint and partner IBM Corp. were scheduled to disclose the project Monday.
The technology could speed the sending of large files such as photographs contained in e-mail messages because so-called upload speeds are generally faster than through DSL or cable modem. It could also allow the remote monitoring of security systems and thermostats.
More importantly, laying new fiber wires is incredibly expensive, says Magid, costing well over $1,500 per home for new wiring, according to AT&T estimates.
CenterPoint, however, is more interested in saving money by automating the labor-intensive job of reading electric and gas meters. About 60,000 customers move every month, requiring somebody to hook up or disconnect service, said Tom Standish, the company's president of Houston electric and information technology.
Standish said the sensors in a BPL system would also help the utility locate and fix power outages.
Still, a final decision is years away, he said, partly because CenterPoint estimates that building a citywide BPL would cost $200 million.
Broadband-over-power line has been under development for many years but has been installed only in small pilot programs such as the CenterPoint experiment. The largest rollout could be in Manassas, Va., where several hundred customers have signed up for BPL service offered by the municipal utility.
"It's moving along slowly, but it's a promising technology," said Alan R. Shark, managing director of an industry trade group in Washington, the Power Line Communications Association.
Shark said the industry has been hampered by the lack of common standards, often making equipment from one manufacturer incompatible with others. But, he added, that could be good because the technology is evolving so quickly.
BPL service could compete with cable broadband and DSL, or digital subscriber line, from phone companies and help keep prices down, Shark said. It might also find a niche in rural areas too remote for broadband, such as vacation homes.
For DSL to work, a customer has to be within about 18,000 feet of the phone company's central office, which leaves out many potential customers, says Magid. And there are many parts of the country that do not have access to TV cables. But with only a few exceptions, electrification is almost universal in America.
In the Houston experiment, CenterPoint is testing rival technologies from Mitsubishi and Amperion. IBM is managing the project for CenterPoint.
The experiment is IBM's biggest foray into BPL in the United States. Raymond Blair, an IBM vice president, said the company was encouraged by new technology that has increased the speed of the Internet connections.
"We see billions of dollars of opportunity for us in the U.S.," Blair said. He said developing countries such as China may skip phone or cable broadband service and go directly to BPL, although "there will always be those alternatives" in the United States.