Rural areas to get power line broadband

Electricity companies hope to bring high-speed internet access to remote areas by using power lines to deliver broadband.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has launched a commercial trial in England of its Powerline Communications broadband connection using electricity lines.

The technology, which sends the broadband signal along electricity wires and cables and into homes and offices, is similar to ADSL.

But SSE is able to offer consumers a symmetrical digital subscriber line (SDSL), which means upload speeds are equivalent to the download speed of 1Mbps.

Using Winchester as the base, SSE is building on an initial commercial trial launched in Stonehaven and two successful pilots in Crieff and Campbeltown in the north of Scotland.

This is not the first time that electricity companies have considered using power lines to offer internet access. Norweb and Nortel tested out the idea in Manchester but ended trials in 2001 because of technical limitations.

SSE said it has been able to overcome the problems of interference to radio frequencies and military radar.

A spokesman for the company told vnunet.com: "We have worked with the Radiocommunications Agency and have had no reports of interference during the trials in Scotland, as we comply with all current interference legislation.

"Also, we have had no reports of spikes or voltage irregularities causing problems for consumers. All they need is to plug in the little black box."

SSE's plan to charge consumers £30 per month means better value than current ADSL and cable connections, which offer 250Kbps upstream.

If the concept takes off, SSE and other electricity companies will need to modify local electricity substations. The service could help bring broadband to rural areas, and the local Scottish development agency sponsored the Scottish trials for this reason.

"We are running the trials in areas such as Winchester, where consumers can already get ADSL, to see if it will prove to be a competitive technology here, but the trials in Scotland show the technology can be used for broadband service in remote communities," said the SSE spokesman.

Michael Philpot, an analyst with Ovum, said that although fixed wireless was a preferred technology, for some areas this service could fill the gap.

"One problem is electricity lines are a very noisy environment and actual bandwidth in the past has been low, but there has been success in overcoming this," he said.

"I also can't see interference being a problem in areas such as the Scottish Highlands."

SSE said if the trials proved successful the company could consider franchising the technology to other electricity providers.