Utility experiments with Internet over power lines

Associated Press


ALLENTOWN, Pa. - An electric utility in eastern Pennsylvania has launched
its fourth marketplace trial of a technology that allows customers to get
high-speed Internet access over their power lines.

Allentown's PPL Corp. is one of more than a dozen electric companies
nationwide that are experimenting with using power lines to deliver
broadband Internet. Most people who get high-speed Internet now receive it
through their telephone jack or cable television line.

PPL started testing the service about a year ago in Whitehall Township and
Emmanaus in the Lehigh Valley. Some customers in a third township in
Northampton County got the service in the fall. The fourth test recently
began in Upper Macungie Township.

The utility said that for now, it is selling the service for a base price of
about $40 a month. Customers can expect speeds equivalent to DSL service,
carried over phone lines, but a little slower than cable Internet. All three
broadband modes are several times faster than traditional access through a
modem.

Like other utilities, PPL isn't quite ready for a full-scale deployment of
the technology.

"We're meeting with very good results, and that's the reason we're
expanding," said David Kelley, president of PPL TelCom, a subsidiary of PPL
Corp.

The company's goal is to perfect a system that would allow customers to get
on the Net by plugging into an electrical outlet, or using an antenna to
pick up a wireless signal from a transmitter. The company is now testing
both transmission methods.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said a year ago
that power companies were "within striking distance" of making electrical
lines the third major way to get broadband Internet into people's homes.

The prospect of piggybacking Internet data onto power lines has raised some
complaints from shortwave radio operators, who worry that it could disrupt
radio signals.

Other groups, citing concern about radio interference, have also urged the
government to take a cautious approach to approving the technology. They
include the National Academy of Sciences,
Aeronautical Radio Inc., and the National Telecommunications and Information
Agency, which represents federal agencies that use high-frequency radio
channels.

PPL said it has received only four complaints about shortwave radio
interference since it began its trials.

The company sells electricity to 1.3 million customers in Pennsylvania.
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Information from: The Morning Call, http://www.mcall.com