Re: Net access on power lines

[Dave McLaughlin <dave@xxxxxxx>]

This was tried in the UK by Norweb ( I think ) and failed. They scrapped it
after a trial period. Don't know the reason but if anyone does, I would
love t  know.

Dave...

At 14:16 03/07/01, you wrote:
>I know this has been talked about by others but I thought thim might be
of
>interest, got it from www.silicon.com
>
>John
>
>
>German utility giant RWE said on Monday it had launched its powerline
>technology service which delivers high-speed internet access by sending
data
>through electricity cables.
>
>RWE hopes for rapid expansion of the new product, called RWE PowerNet,
now
>that Germany has passed new laws setting out the framework for the use
of
>the technology.
>
>"We aim t  win 20,000 customers by year-end," Michael
Laskowski, managing
>director of RWE Powerline GmbH t ld Reuters in an interview.
>
>He said RWE PowerNet was launched on Sunday in Muehlheim and in RWE's
home
>town of Essen, in Germany's industrial heartland, or Ruhr region. It
would
>be offered in more Ruhr cities in the region in the second half of this
year
>and in the Bonn area. Besides using existing electric plug sockets,
>powerline promises speeds of up to two million bytes per second, or
more
>than three times the speed of latest phone connections promoted by
Deutsche
>Telekom.
>
>RWE Powerline, a unit of RWE distribution arm RWE Plus, planned to
offer the
>technology over the next three years across its distribution region in
west
>Germany, Laskowski said.
>
>RWE Powerline spokesman Andreas Preuss said 7,000 customers in Essen
and
>Muehlheim had already registered their interest and Cologne was the
next
>city to be targeted.
>
>The company has a target of signing up 100,000 powerline customers in
2002,
>he added.
>
>Advances in the technology over the last few years had been slow, yet
>analysts think if successful, it might change the telecommunications
>landscape t  the benefit of utilities.
>
>Germany's parliament in March approved three laws setting out the
conditions
>for powerline operations which come into force 1 July.
>
>They ensure, for example, that the system does not interfere with
electrical
>appliances or radio frequencies needed for emergency services.
>
>RWE charges customers according to the amount of data they receive,
ranging
>between 49 and 249 marks a month.
>
>For the entry level price of 49 marks per month, users may download
250MB of
>data. A typical picture sent via email uses around 0.5MB.
>
>The utility will compete with other high-speed internet connections to
the
>home such as television cable and super-charged copper telephone wires
known
>as asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL).
>
>Deutsche Telekom in March said it had s ld 850,000 broadband ADSL lines
and
>installed 400,000, with subscribers paying 65 marks a month.
>
>Laskowski dismissed concerns over possible hardware shortages which
have
>been mentioned by analysts.
>
>Switzerland's Ascom will provide the modem needed inside a consumer's
home
>to get the signals from the electricity cable into the computer.
>
>Laskowski also said RWE was testing powerline in a field trial in
Brazil.





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