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Blog 'alt,other' » BPL Test Runs Show Promise for High-Speed Internet

By Marsha Austin

The Denver Post Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 23 - Rural Colorado and small towns in the mountain West may become prime proving ground for emerging technology that would deliver high-speed Internet over electric power lines.

The technology to allow customers to plug their modems into a wall socket -- just like they do a lamp or a blender -- would add a competitor to the marketplace and could provide Internet access for millions of consumers still living on the dark side of the digital divide.

Successful test runs across the country are building buzz for the technology that would provide an affordable alternative to DSL, cable modem and satellite Internet access. And the concept has been endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission, which will soon issue rules allowing electric utilities to offer power-line-based Internet access to millions of customers.

"I welcome the day when every electrical outlet will have the potential to offer high-speed broadband and a plethora of high-tech applications to all Americans," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said this month.

But ranchers in remote reaches of the state are likely to enjoy "plug-and-play" technology years before Denver urbanites get the choice, if they get it at all.

"We have high-end homes and lone eagles," said Shelly Farrell, manager of engineering operations for Pueblo-based San Isabel Electric Association, which serves a seven-county area west of Pueblo. "A lot of our customers have a phone line, and they have a dial-up and that's the best they have."

Farrell said the co-op is looking for an affordable way to deliver high-speed access in areas unlikely to get DSL access. He said he found out about regional trials of running broadband over power lines at a National Rural Electric Cooperative Association meeting last fall.

"The technology is so new, we're keeping an eye on it," he said. "If it happens, we'd like to be able to offer it to our customers."

United Power, a Brighton-based energy cooperative that serves customers just northeast of Denver and in mountain communities in Jefferson and Gilpin counties, is also taking a look. However, United's director of external affairs, Troy Whitmore, said the co-op is more cautious about getting into the telecom business because many of its customers already have access to DSL, cable-modem and wireless-Internet services.

Continued @ The Miami Herald
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