Massive BPL installation planned in Texas

Broadband Over Powerline Internet access will be coming to the Dallas - Ft. Worth Metroplex area of Texas in 2006.

This as a subsidiary of energy provider TXU Corporation announces a 10-year, $150 million deal today to build a smart power grid that will make high speed service using power distribution lines available to millions of its customers.

Construction on the smart grid system will begin early next year along TXU's 14,000 miles of transmission and 100,000 miles of distribution lines. Residential Internet service is expected to start up in the second half of 2006.

While Internet access will be a major part of the business scheme, TXU Energy Delivery spokesman Chris Schein says that BPL is actually secondary to the overall smart grid capabilities. He says that once completed, the grid will let company check meter consumption remotely and pinpoint
problems before they become major blackouts.

Proponents of the plan say BPL could be especially significant for rural areas, where traditional broadband access has lagged. Opponents fear that it will cause massive interference to all radio communications on the high
frequency bands because the powerlines will act as gigantic radio antennas to transmit the BPL signal as unwanted noise and interference to nearby radio receivers.

The only bright spot for ham radio was the decision by
TXU to drop Amperion based BPL and go with Current's gear and technology. Current's BPL deployment in Cincinnati has so far caused very few problems for the radio amateurs in that community.



AR Newsline, Houston Chronicle, WA5KRP, K1ZZ

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