Utility might expand high-speed Internet
Duke Power testing technology over power lines in N.C., could bring it here
By JAMES D. McWILLIAMS
Staff Writer
Duke Power might offer high-speed Internet service over electric power lines in South Carolina.
The utility company is testing the technology in a 500-home area southeast of Charlotte. This autumn, the company will introduce the service to 10,000 to 15,000 N.C. homes. If that goes well, the company could expand the service to its customers throughout the Carolinas, said Bob Gerardi, manager of power line communications at the company.
Duke Power has done a presentation on the technology for the S.C. Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, but the company has not yet asked for state permission to bring the service to South Carolina, said PSC spokesman Charles Terreni.
Duke Power serves almost 418,000 residential customers and almost 79,000 commercial and industrial customers in South Carolina, primarily in the northwestern part of the state.
Duke Power could offer Internet service by connecting fiber-optic communication networks to the power lines at electric substations and making other power-system modifications, Gerardi said.
The new technology connects people to the Internet through standard power outlets already in homes, Gerardi said. Special modems plug into those outlets and into a USB port on the back of a computer. Nearly all new computers have USB ports.
Where power systems are prepared to handle online traffic, customers can link to multiple Internet-service providers, Gerardi said. Duke Power itself does not plan to become an Internet-service provider, but has been letting customers use its lines to connect Earthlink, AT&T and Atlanta-based Lecstar Telecom.
NOT ALL CONVINCED
Major electrical companies in South Carolina are not rushing into BPL — the industry acronym for “broadband over power lines.”
A key concern in putting the Internet on power lines is signal interference, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
The commission says because data transmission over power lines emits low-level radio signals, it could interfere with amateur radio. And other radio transmissions could interfere with the data. The FCC said it has rules in place to limit interference.
The largest power utility in the Midlands, SCE&G, has no immediate plans to offer Internet service, said spokesman Eric Boomhower.
“It’s an immature technology at this point,” Boomhower said. “But if we got to a point where we thought it would be a good business opportunity, we would be in a position to move pretty quickly to take advantage. ... We have folks in our company with expertise in that area.”
SCE&G serves about 490,000 residential customers statewide, and about 95,000 commercial and industrial customers.
Progress Energy tested Internet service over power lines in mid-2004, in a roughly 500-home area of North Carolina, but the company has no plans to deploy the service, said spokesman Garrick Francis. “We’ve decided to wait and see how the industry matures,” Francis said.
Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, serves 300,000 S.C. customers.
PHONE, CABLE COMPETITORS
Internet service over power lines could be a strong competitor against cable modems and digital phone lines, said Duke Power’s Gerardi. That is because power lines can move data at a speed of 1 to 5 megabits per second — up to about 90 times faster than traditional phone lines — for both uploads and downloads.
Phone and cable companies offer comparable speeds at moving data to customers, but their upload speeds are slower.
Both BellSouth’s digital phone lines and Time Warner Cable upload at the slower rate of 384 kilobits per second— less than a third of 1 megabit.
Other companies that sell high-speed Internet service said they are taking Duke Power’s plans in stride.
“Competition is good for the customer,” said Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Mary Anne Jacobs.
Competition is “a fact of life,” said BellSouth spokeswoman Marcia Purday. But she expressed concern about whether legal restrictions on phone and cable companies would apply to electric utilities.
PSC spokesman Terreni would not comment on whether his agency would have jurisdiction over Duke Power’s Internet service. The PSC will address that when the company plans to offer the service in South Carolina.
Internet service over power lines does have at least one drawback: It is vulnerable to outages when power lines fall or fail. But other high-speed Internet services can share that vulnerability, Gerardi said.
Time Warner Cable has power generators attached to parts of its system, so people with battery-powered laptops stay online during an electrical outage. Generators probably will not back up the entire Time Warner system for two years, said spokeswoman Jacobs.
Laptop users often can gain access to Internet service over traditional phone lines during power outages.
Reach McWilliams at (803) 771-8308 or jmcwilliams@thestate.com
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/12323341.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Duke Power testing technology over power lines in N.C., could bring it here
By JAMES D. McWILLIAMS
Staff Writer
Duke Power might offer high-speed Internet service over electric power lines in South Carolina.
The utility company is testing the technology in a 500-home area southeast of Charlotte. This autumn, the company will introduce the service to 10,000 to 15,000 N.C. homes. If that goes well, the company could expand the service to its customers throughout the Carolinas, said Bob Gerardi, manager of power line communications at the company.
Duke Power has done a presentation on the technology for the S.C. Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, but the company has not yet asked for state permission to bring the service to South Carolina, said PSC spokesman Charles Terreni.
Duke Power serves almost 418,000 residential customers and almost 79,000 commercial and industrial customers in South Carolina, primarily in the northwestern part of the state.
Duke Power could offer Internet service by connecting fiber-optic communication networks to the power lines at electric substations and making other power-system modifications, Gerardi said.
The new technology connects people to the Internet through standard power outlets already in homes, Gerardi said. Special modems plug into those outlets and into a USB port on the back of a computer. Nearly all new computers have USB ports.
Where power systems are prepared to handle online traffic, customers can link to multiple Internet-service providers, Gerardi said. Duke Power itself does not plan to become an Internet-service provider, but has been letting customers use its lines to connect Earthlink, AT&T and Atlanta-based Lecstar Telecom.
NOT ALL CONVINCED
Major electrical companies in South Carolina are not rushing into BPL — the industry acronym for “broadband over power lines.”
A key concern in putting the Internet on power lines is signal interference, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
The commission says because data transmission over power lines emits low-level radio signals, it could interfere with amateur radio. And other radio transmissions could interfere with the data. The FCC said it has rules in place to limit interference.
The largest power utility in the Midlands, SCE&G, has no immediate plans to offer Internet service, said spokesman Eric Boomhower.
“It’s an immature technology at this point,” Boomhower said. “But if we got to a point where we thought it would be a good business opportunity, we would be in a position to move pretty quickly to take advantage. ... We have folks in our company with expertise in that area.”
SCE&G serves about 490,000 residential customers statewide, and about 95,000 commercial and industrial customers.
Progress Energy tested Internet service over power lines in mid-2004, in a roughly 500-home area of North Carolina, but the company has no plans to deploy the service, said spokesman Garrick Francis. “We’ve decided to wait and see how the industry matures,” Francis said.
Progress Energy, based in Raleigh, serves 300,000 S.C. customers.
PHONE, CABLE COMPETITORS
Internet service over power lines could be a strong competitor against cable modems and digital phone lines, said Duke Power’s Gerardi. That is because power lines can move data at a speed of 1 to 5 megabits per second — up to about 90 times faster than traditional phone lines — for both uploads and downloads.
Phone and cable companies offer comparable speeds at moving data to customers, but their upload speeds are slower.
Both BellSouth’s digital phone lines and Time Warner Cable upload at the slower rate of 384 kilobits per second— less than a third of 1 megabit.
Other companies that sell high-speed Internet service said they are taking Duke Power’s plans in stride.
“Competition is good for the customer,” said Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Mary Anne Jacobs.
Competition is “a fact of life,” said BellSouth spokeswoman Marcia Purday. But she expressed concern about whether legal restrictions on phone and cable companies would apply to electric utilities.
PSC spokesman Terreni would not comment on whether his agency would have jurisdiction over Duke Power’s Internet service. The PSC will address that when the company plans to offer the service in South Carolina.
Internet service over power lines does have at least one drawback: It is vulnerable to outages when power lines fall or fail. But other high-speed Internet services can share that vulnerability, Gerardi said.
Time Warner Cable has power generators attached to parts of its system, so people with battery-powered laptops stay online during an electrical outage. Generators probably will not back up the entire Time Warner system for two years, said spokeswoman Jacobs.
Laptop users often can gain access to Internet service over traditional phone lines during power outages.
Reach McWilliams at (803) 771-8308 or jmcwilliams@thestate.com
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/12323341.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
