more on Utilities take pass on offering broadband

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Russell Nelson <nelson () crynwr com>
Date: October 28, 2004 12:36:14 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Utilities take pass on offering broadband

For IP:

> From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
> Date: October 26, 2004 9:39:58 PM EDT
> Subject: Utilities take pass on offering broadband
>
> Utilities take pass on offering broadband
> Most firms skeptical of providing service over power lines

Indeed.  Supplying Internet service to customers over power lines is
not the purpose of BPL (Broadband over power lines).  Don't believe
me, you can get it straight from the horse's mouth.  See below for a
quote from the President of Con Ed.  Right now, power companies are
literally in the dark ages.  The only way they have to find out of
their network is functioning is by silence in their call center.  No
news is good news.

Unfortunately, that also means that they can't charge people for what
the electricity costs them.  Some electricity is cheap, and some they
purchase at a very dear price.  Without the ability to communicate
those prices to their customers, they have to charge everybody the
average price.  People who are price-sensitive and would rather only
buy the cheap electricity have to pay more.

Also, a single substation costs Con Ed a hundred million dollars.  If
they can spend a million dollars on a BPL network to find out that
they don't need to install one yet, or find out that they need to
install one NOW, they come out ahead.  Sure, they can provide
broadband to their customers, but that's just a sideshow.  They'll
partner with an ISP like Earthlink, and make the customer provision
Earthlink's problem.

Quoting from:
    http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/041026/074896.html

Ambient Corporation, a leader in Power Line Communications (PLC)
announced today the successful completion of its joint project with
Consolidated Edison in the installation of a communications system in
Con Edison's new First Avenue Steam Tunnel in Manhattan.

Kevin Burke, President of Con Edison, said, "We are pleased with the
results of the project and its cost effectiveness. This
state-of-the-art monitoring and communications system will serve us
well."

Ambient, the first US company to incorporate the latest chipset from
DS2 into its system, utilized DS2's second generation PLC technology,
capable of running at speeds up to 200 Mbps, to build a multi-purpose
communications network in an industrial environment. The network is
utilized in Con Edison's new tunnel to monitor environmental
conditions, the state of the steam main, and to provide telephony
service in the tunnel utilizing the voice over IP (VoIP) technology
provided by the DS2 chipset. This single network is a cost-effective
solution that provides a variety of services that would traditionally
have required multiple technologies and wiring systems.

....

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