Broadband over powerline technology losing its spark

The one-time promising technology of broadband over powerline (BPL), touted by some as the third wire into the home that would break the DSL-cable duopoly, appears to be all but dead in Canada. According to industry observers, three things have stopped BPL in its tracks: messy standards, sticky regulatory issues, and a questionable business case. Roberta Fox, an industry analyst at Fox Group Consulting questions the business drivers for BPL deployment in Canada by noting that there are a number of broadband technologies in the market. "We have a lot of sunk fibre, a lot of black fibre, a lot of DSL and cable," she tells Network Letter. "We have a lot of high-speed carrier services. We have this Wi-Fi/ WiMAX stuff coming up, too. What’s the business driver for BPL?" Ian Collins, VP of operations at Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc. and chair of the United Telecom Council of Canada, (UTC Canada) explains that challenges with technology standards still remain. "Some of them are medium voltage. Some are low voltage. Some bridge the transformer. Some go through the transformer," notes Collins. He explains that while the United Power Line Council (UPLC), a US BPL development group, wrestles with the numerous technical proposals, the technology languishes in this country. In 2005, Industry Canada kick started a consultation on BPL, inviting interested parties to discuss the technology via written submissions. But since then, the government hasn’t said much about the process. "Recently, we have not had a lot of pressure on the part of industry…to accelerate a response to the consultation," says Gerry Briggs, a senior engineering officer in Industry Canada’s spectrum branch. Although his group is poring over the submissions and considering next steps, "we haven’t even had a request for a trial in the past year. It’s not really active up here." A major issue in the public consultation was BPL interference on wireless services. Many people wrote in, concerned that the powerline technology would wipe out amateur radio signals, marine radio signals and other important untethered links that are crucial in emergency situations. But the department has yet to grapple with that demon. "We’re still looking into that," Briggs says, adding that solutions abound, but the industry at large hasn’t standardized on a solution. There are still other issues that have slowed the adoption of BPL. One can trace its origins back to a battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada that pitted the CRTC against Barrie PUC over jurisdiction over hydro poles. The highest court sided with the utility company, but the emergence of BPL has raised questions about who regulates the technology. Recent decisions from the Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier have also created more uncertainty. Industry Canada’s legislative leader also threw another wrench into the BPL works recently, announcing a plan that would see the CRTC distanced from regulating the telecom industry. The announcement could upset telecom service prices, and that could in turn cause some BPL backers to think twice about the technology. "I think BPL is going to cool off even more," Collins says. "No one’s going to take that risk."But perhaps the most significant obstacle to the potential success of BPL is the shaky business case, at least according to some industry insiders. They question the ability of the technology to support the triple-play bundle of Internet, video and telephony services in the residential market. They also question its viability when stacked up against other technologies such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and satellite. Questions are also raised about whether the technology is better suited for last-mile connectivity, or local access, or whether it would better as a transport type service to be paired with some type of wireless technology that could be used as the last mile. BPL was hyped as being able to reach rural and outlying areas – in communities where DSL and cable were unavailable. However, some are concerned that rural electricity systems aren’t robust enough to offer both power to the home and data connectivity for Internet services. It also appears that wireless access is the odds-on favourite to win in the rural and remote markets, again raising the business case question. While there are some unanswered questions, this doesn’t appear to have stopped some utility telcos. At the UTC Canada conference in Vancouver in March, Troy Hare, GM of Blink Communications, a subsidiary of Oakville Hydro, talked about the advantages of using BPL (NL, April 27/06). Trytel Internet Inc., an ISP in Cornwall ON that undertook a trial of the technology in 2004 and outfitted the Ramada Inn and Conference Centre with a BPL system (NL June 22/04). According to Hydro Ottawa Holding Inc., Trytel’s parent company, the installation was relatively easy because the firm didn’t have to install new wires: Trytel simply piggybacked on the existing electrical wires in the building. Moreover, BPL proved fast enough to support VoIP, and it offered little interference to nearby wireless networks. The system is still experimental, however, and the ISP has no plans to crank up a commercial version of the Ramada install any time soon. According to Research and Markets, a Dublin, Ireland research firm, about 170,000 broadband subscribers across the globe have opted for BPL. A third of them are in the US. Here, it’s a different story, though. "BPL in Canada is still in its early exploratory stages with few trials and commercial deployments," the company said in a December press release. Fox says BPL’s moment may have passed. "By the time they do define the standards to transfer from power to Ethernet, the business opportunity will be gone."

Broadband over powerline technology losing its spark

News | December 21, 2006

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