Getting broadband through power lines
Source: CNN.com
The walls in a one-story brick home in suburban Washington don't talk but their power outlets do.
From those outlets pour streams of digital video, interactive games, online radio stations and services familiar to people who use cable or telephone modems to get high-speed Internet connections. This technology that delivers broadband through ordinary electric wiring should be commercially available to some consumers this year.
"This is within striking distance of being the third major broadband pipe into the home," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, who visited the house Wednesday to get a preview of the technology.
The home is part of a trial project run by Current Technologies, a company based in Germantown, Maryland. The company, working with the Potomac Electric Power Co., is providing broadband over power lines to about 70 homes in Maryland. Another trial offers the service in suburban Cincinnati.
