In a broadband world dominated by cable and DSL, the vision recently put forth by top U.S. telecom regulator Michael Powell of a high-speed Internet connection in every electrical outlet may seem a bit far-fetched.
After all, broadband over power line, or BPL, services are currently available in only about a dozen communities nationwide, and even then only on a trial basis. The first commercial service -- to be deployed in Manassas, Virginia -- isn't expected to launch until summer. And so far, power companies have been reluctant to spend the vast sums required to retrofit aging networks for data.
But now that they've overcome some of the technological hurdles that plagued past experiments, power companies and networking providers are out to prove that BPL can be a viable business. While critics point to past flops -- including high-profile projects by Nortel Networks and Germany's Siemens -- BPL believers say the power grid is too big to be ignored as a data channel.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,62327,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
