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First Canadian High Speed Internet over Power Grid
oO0(MjB)0Oo writes "Sault Ste. Marie, a northern Ontario town, is going to be the first installation of BPL (Broadband Power Line technology) in Canada. As reported in the Toronto Star, wireless access points will be set up along medium-voltage power lines, providing roaming capability throughout the city to all users."
No more ham radio in Sault Ste. Marie! Everyone will die a tragic and horrible death on account of there being no more ham radio!
Can't wait for the summer blackout, thanks again Canada!
Sault Ste. Marie makes high-speed power play
Internet piped over electric grid
Utilities challenge telecom firms
TYLER HAMILTON
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
Sault Ste. Marie, known largely as a northern Ontario steel town, is set to become the first municipality in Canada to offer residential high-speed Internet service through the power grid.
Local energy supplier PUC Inc. hopes other hydro utilities will follow its lead and give cable and telephone companies a jolt of competition.
"We really want to see this take off," said Martin Wyant, general manager of PUC Telecom Inc., the telecommunications subsidiary of PUC.
"Our service can reach into areas that others don't, because the power network is the most pervasive on the planet. It's where the phones aren't and the cable isn't."
Broadband power line technology (BPL) makes it possible for data to piggyback the existing power infrastructure.
This is appealing to hydro companies that are looking for new sources of revenue but don't want to invest heavily in new telecommunications facilities.
Virtually every home and office is wired for electricity, so every building has the potential to access the Internet and other data services through medium-voltage power lines.
Speed of service generally equals or exceeds cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) products.
"It's going to enable so much for utilities," said Wyant.
PUC will launch a market trial of the service over the coming weeks involving "thousands" of Sault Ste. Marie homes and will broadly deploy the service before the end of the year, Wyant said.
Pricing will be "competitive" with cable and DSL service.
PUC is also looking at offering "second-line" broadband telephone service over its high-speed lines.
"The growing involvement of electric utilities in communications is undeniable," wrote Lawrence Surtees, senior telecom analyst at IDC Canada, in a recent report. "Hydro companies have quietly emerged as powerful challengers poised to assault the `last mile' supremacy of the incumbent telephone companies."
Wyant is quick to point out PUC won't be using power lines to deliver Internet access directly into the home. Instead, the company is installing wireless access points along its medium-voltage lines in densely populated residential areas.
These wireless "boxes" convert data so they can be sent through the grid and on to PUC's fibre-optic backbone, which connects to the Internet. Home computers equipped with 802.11b or "Wi-Fi" wireless access cards and within 150 metres of these access points will be able to use the service.
The advantage of this approach, said Wyant, is that instead of being tied to home with cable or DSL service, a power-line subscriber with a wireless card can use the service anywhere in Sault Ste. Marie that's within range of an access point.
"It's (high-speed) roaming that the phone and cable companies can't provide," he said.
The company's technology partner is Andover, Mass.-based Amperion Inc., a three-year-old firm that counts Cisco Systems Inc. as a strategic investor. Amperion has about 12 power-line trials under way in the United States and several already offer commercial service.
The company began expanding in Canada last year. "We're in discussions with all of the major hydros in Canada at one level or another," said Jeffery Tolnar, vice-president of sales and business development at Amperion.
Hydro utilities have had their eye on the telecom market for several years. Many own fibre-optic networks and already sell unused capacity to long-distance carriers and Internet services providers.
With this project, Sault Ste. Marie will showcase the technology for other Canadian utilities. "It's nice to be the first in a community known as an industrial location more than a high-tech location," said Wyant