Posted: 22nd Feb, 2006 By: MarkJ
Powerline Broadband may have died a death in the UK, yet the Open PLC European Research Alliance (OPERA) yesterday approved the first open global specification. This is the technology that allows Internet access to be delivered over national grid power cables:
This specification will accelerate mass rollout of high-speed, low-cost, broadband access, voice and audiovisual services, as well as utility applications for control and management operations. Technology from Spanish chipmaker Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2) was selected as the baseline for the specification.
The OPERA specification provides a baseline for both PLC access technology as well as in-building applications, where powerline technology extends existing backbone technologies such as fiber to the home (FTTx), DSL and coax. The OPERA Specification has the support of the Universal Powerline Association (UPA), a group that includes leading PLC equipment suppliers.
Unfortunately not even this is likely to resuscitate the mediums use in our country, which had its chance and ultimately missed the boat. Nice idea, just too many problems (regulation, performance, price etc.).