Broadband-over-power-line isn’t unplugged yet

When the City of Manassas, Va., recently moved to shut down its broadband-over-power-line network, many broadband market observers were quick to write the obituary of a technology once positioned as an alternative to the cable-telco broadband duopoly.

The Manassas network had been the first major urban BPL network to advance from trial to commercial offering, and as a few other notable BPL networks failed in the last few years and more BPL technology firms turned their attention to smart grid technology and other developments, Manassas remained the most viable example of BPL’s potential.

The city actually took over operation of the network in 2008 from COMTek, the company that built the network. The move came around the same time that another BPL firm, Current Communications, sold a high-profile network in the Dallas area to a local utility. The Manassas takeover came a few years after BPL was praised by companies such as COMTek and Current Communications as being on the cusp of greater success. Neither COMTek nor Current responded to e-mails from Connected Planet, but both, while still listing BPL among their businesses, have broadened into other areas, such as smart grid and wireless.

David Sidhu, smart grid advisor for Zpryme Research and Consulting, said technical issues like signal interference issues in dense markets kept BPL from progressing while other broadband access technologies have been widely deployed and continuously upgraded. “Broadband infrastructure in urban areas is to a large extent developed, be it DSL or cable,” Sidhu said, adding that DSL has reached 18 Mb/s or higher, while cable broadband can be ordered at 50 Mb.s in many markets.
Meanwhile, the case for using power circuits inside homes or business premises to support smart grid or other home network applications has only improved. Current Communications, for example, has aligned with Qwest Communications, Verizon Business and others to support smart grid applications. And the HomePlug Powerline Alliance continues to advance its standard to support home networking.

“HomePlug has strongly focused its efforts for broadband-speed power line within the home, so [BPL’s potential demise] will have no real impact,” said HomePlug President Rob Ranck.

But the dirge plays on for BPL as a last-mile pipe option.

The Manassas shutdown also came just weeks after the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan was announced and failed to provide a sense of urgency that might have helped jump-start the BPL market.