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Talking To Your Fridge? You Need In-House Broadband Over Powerline: Page 8 of 10

The City of Manassas, Virginia, which owns its own power utility company, has developed a partnership with ComTek for city wide BPL. Priced at $28.95 per month for residential service and $39.95 per month for commercial service, access speeds are a minimum of 300 kbps, fully symmetric. This compares to $42.95 that Comcast Corp. charges cable-modem customers who also subscribe to its cable television services. Cable throughput in the area is allegedly 600-800 kbps downstream and 128-256 kbps upstream. Plans call for tiered service at much higher data rates.

Other companies currently offering commercial BPL service include Idaho Power (Idacomm), Pennsylvania Power & Light (PPL Telcom) and Central Virginia Electric Coop. Earthlink has been working with Consolidated Edison in New York, and plans to offer BPL service in Manhattan; this is after a successful pilot with Progress Energy outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. Even AT&T had a trial underway with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in Menlo Park, California, until shifting its focus away from the consumer market in response to the FCC's shifted position on unbundled local loops.

Rules and Regulations

The FCC's primary interest is in Access BPL, as you might expect. The BPL modems that plug into the wall have to comply with FCC Part 15 rules, of course, just as do cordless phones, garage door openers and Wi-Fi components.

Advantages and Challenges