Internet via the Power Grid: New Interest in Obvious Idea

As cable, telephone and wireless companies compete to provide high-speed Internet access to homes, a new challenger is emerging based on a decidedly old technology. The idea is to send Internet data over ordinary electric power lines. Proponents argue that it can be a competitive alternative to digital cable, telephone digital subscriber line and wireless efforts to connect the “last mile” between homes and Internet service providers. Power-line networking has held out promise for several decades, in part because the electric grid is already in place, running to almost every residence in the nation, and also because it was thought that power companies would leap at the idea of a new revenue source — if the technology is proven. But the idea has elicited deep skepticism from technologists who argue that the electric power network is a remarkably difficult environment for transmitting digital information. Moreover the nation’s electric power industry has for the most part remained complacent about the technology. Full Story