Douglas County's Liberty Media Corp. has teamed with Google, Goldman Sachs and Hearst Corp., among others, to help roll out a new technology for delivering high-speed Internet access over power lines.
The technology, known as Broadband over Power Line, is a possible option - along with wireless and satellite service - for the majority of Americans who do not yet have high-speed Internet service.
Liberty Media, through its private equity fund Liberty Associated Partners, founded Current Communications Group in 2000 to explore power-line technology.
"The technology works, but I'm skeptical that it will be massively rolled out across the country," Janco Partners analyst Donna Jaegers said.
Current Communications is testing the service in Cincinnati with Cinergy, which said it might expand the technology to service areas in Kentucky and Indiana later this year.
Xcel Energy, which provides electricity to 1.3 million people in Colorado, investigated similar technology in the mid-1990s. But it ran into problems with the security and quality of the technology - and Xcel's legal right to use power lines for communications services.
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The technology, known as Broadband over Power Line, is a possible option - along with wireless and satellite service - for the majority of Americans who do not yet have high-speed Internet service.
Liberty Media, through its private equity fund Liberty Associated Partners, founded Current Communications Group in 2000 to explore power-line technology.
"The technology works, but I'm skeptical that it will be massively rolled out across the country," Janco Partners analyst Donna Jaegers said.
Current Communications is testing the service in Cincinnati with Cinergy, which said it might expand the technology to service areas in Kentucky and Indiana later this year.
Xcel Energy, which provides electricity to 1.3 million people in Colorado, investigated similar technology in the mid-1990s. But it ran into problems with the security and quality of the technology - and Xcel's legal right to use power lines for communications services.
Entire Article
