Powerline makes U.S. play

Texas Instruments and Corinex Communications this week will announce the launch of a residential gateway product that integrates TI's AR7 ADSL2+ and RISC CPU solution with Corinex Powerline technology. Branded as the Corinex AV200 Powerline Gateway, the unit is the first to combine ADSL2+, 200 Mb/s powerline technology and wireless G++ technology.

Although it is not receiving the same hype as coaxial-based technologies or the emerging wireless 802.11n standard, powerline — which uses in-home electrical wiring to transmit up to 200 Mb/s of data — is starting to gain acceptance in the U.S., said Brian Donnelly, director of business development for Corinex.

Corinex, which has been shipping powerline-based technology to Telefonica since last year, fully expects to sell more of the current products to European carriers, but is planning a powerline version that will operate over coax networks for the U.S. market, Donnelly said. The AV200 in fact will make its debut at CeBit in Hanover, Germany, this week.

“North America is starting to wake up and discover powerline,” said Donnelly, noting that current deployments are heaviest in the multi-dwelling and hotel markets. “Once we moved to the 200 Mb/s technology, it started to pick up.”

Tier 2 U.S. carriers also are more likely to be early adopters of the solution, using it as a way to send IPTV from ADSL modems to the TVs. However, Corinex has been talking with both BellSouth and Verizon about the technology, he added.