List of broadband over power line deployments
Encyclopedia
This is a list of broadband over power line deployments. In this sense, "broadband" usually refers to Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....

 using power line communication
Power line communication
Power line communication or power line carrier , also known as power line digital subscriber line , mains communication, power line telecom , power line networking , or broadband over power lines are systems for carrying data on a conductor also used for electric power transmission.A wide range...

 technology.

Active

  • North America:
    • United States: The United Telecom Council publishes the Federal Communications Commission
      Federal Communications Commission
      The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

       (FCC)-mandated BPL Interference Resolution website, which provides a list of all BPL deployments in the US.
      • BPL vendors such as Ambient Corporation, Amperion Inc., Current Technologies LLC, Corinex Communications, IBEC Inc., and InovaTech have deployed BPL systems in limited areas. Duke Energy has entered into an $11 million contract to deploy Ambient Corporation's BPL over its systems, as of 1 April 2008.
      • California
        California
        California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

        : A plan was approved on 27 April 2006 allowing high-speed internet providers to begin testing delivery of online access using power lines in the state.
      • Virginia
        Virginia
        The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

        : In October 2005, the city of Manassas
        Manassas, Virginia
        The City of Manassas is an independent city surrounded by Prince William County and the independent city of Manassas Park in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Its population was 37,821 as of 2010. Manassas also surrounds the county seat for Prince William County but that county...

         began the first wide-scale deployment of BPL service in the nation, offering 10 Mbits/s service for under $30 USD per month to its 35,000 city residents, using MainNet BPL technology. On 16 June 2006, the FCC directed the Manassas BPL System to resolve the ARRL's interference complaints. The FCC detailed what the city and BPL operator COMTek ought to do to ensure their system complies with Part 15
        Part 15 (FCC rules)
        Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, Part 15 is an oft-quoted part of Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations regarding unlicensed transmissions. It is a part of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations , and regulates everything from spurious emissions to unlicensed...

         rules governing BPL systems, and even hinted that it may shut down all or part of the system.
    • Canada:
      • Quebec
        Quebec
        Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

        : As of 2005, PLC communication technology developed by Ariane Controls is being installed inside and outside existing buildings to control lights and other energy-hungry devices. The cheap devices allow energy consumption to be better managed, and so save much energy and bring a clear return on investment.

  • Western Europe
    Western Europe
    Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

    :
    • Sweden
      Sweden
      Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

      : Vattenfall is using PLC technology at 1200 baud for automatic meter reading based on an Iskraemeco product.

  • Central
    Central Europe
    Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

     and Eastern Europe
    Eastern Europe
    Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

    , and Eurasia
    Eurasia
    Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

    :
    • Russian Federation
      Russia
      Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

      : Electro-com has deployed widely BPL/PLC technology and offers internet access service in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod
      Nizhny Novgorod
      Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

      , Ryazan, Kaluga and Rostov-on-Don, planning to extend coverage to main Russian cities. Currently the company does not provide other services, though plans to start providing telephone, and television services someday. Base equipment is a DefiDev modem with a DS2 chipset. The company had 35,000 subscribers and an annual growth of 15-20%. The company has, however, halted operations in Moscow in September, 2008, having sold its client network to an IDSL internet provider.
    • Romania
      Romania
      Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

      : In January, 2006, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology introduced a PLC trial in the rural locality of Band, Mureş County
      Mures County
      Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....

      , offering phone and broadband internet access for €7 per month. The technology was introduced to 50 households. If successful, the technology will be extended to other rural areas throughout Romania.
    • Montenegro
      Montenegro
      Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

      : In March, 2002, the Internet Crna Gora biggest internet provider in Montenegro launched a pilot project in town of Cetinje
      Cetinje
      Cetinje , Цетиње / Cetinje , Italian: Cettigne, Greek: Κετίγνη, Ketígni) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro , with the official residence of the President of Montenegro...

      .
    • Serbia
      Serbia
      Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

      : In August 2002, the Star Engineering from Niš
      Niš
      Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...

       launched a pilot project to show a completely new way to access the Internet, which is a new in that time in most countries around the world.
    • Hungary
      Hungary
      Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

      : The first powerline service in Hungary was realized in September, 2003, in the Riverside apartment house in Budapest by 23Vnet Ltd. The PLC equipment was supplied by ASCOM Powerline. After four months the service was counting 100 users from 450 apartment owners. The bandwidth is 4.5 Mbits/s.

  • Asia, Pacific, and Oceania
    Oceania
    Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

    :
    • InovaTech has been particularly active, with many successful trials in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan
      Taiwan
      Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

      , Indonesia
      Indonesia
      Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

      , Malaysia, and the Philippines
      Philippines
      The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

      . InovaTech recently widened its focus to include Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where it has undertaken several successful field trials and is believed to be readying commercial operations in several locations. InovaTech is also understood to have a long-term trial running in Russia. One of the most active solution providers, InovaTech is the first vendor to develop an integrated offering which integrates telecommunications and energy management capabilities.
    • The Philippines
      Philippines
      The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

       is deploying broadband over power lines nationwide.
    • Indonesia
      Indonesia
      Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

      :
      • PT Kejora Gemilang Internusa "KEJORA", under their banner PLANET BROADBAND, is currently rolling out broadband over power line, with over 300,000 homes expected to be enabled by August 2010. PT. Kejora Gemilang Internusa signed an 8 year Joint Venture concession agreement with ICON+ a division of PT. Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Indonesia electricity company). Under the terms of the agreement PLAnet Broadband are to supply BPL/PLC to Jakarta West and West Java. The first stage of the project will see BPL/PLC services delivered to the door of 300,000 homes with continued rollout to follow. PLAnet Broadband are the industry leader in the BPL PLC Asian Pacific market and were the first provider to offer BPL Internet commercially within Indonesia. PLAnet Broadband currently offer 3-Play services with WAN access speeds from 256Kbps - 10Mbps and LAN access speeds from 85-200Mbps current developments are continuing in INDONESIA, MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE, PHILIPPINES & CHINA. PLAnet Broadband have very strong partnerships with China based manufacturing companies for supply of Head-End, Reapeters, Couplers and CPE. further information can be viewed on PLANET BROADBAND at their website www.planetbroadband.kejora.net
      • Another company, PT. Broadband Powerline Indonesia, has been developing broadband over power line in apartment buildings since 2006. PT. BPI also produces data couplers to make broadband over powerline possible in three phases (R, S, T) with a single master.
    • India
      India
      India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

       : In India IIIT Allahabad has undertaken a project in co-operation withh Corinex Communications Canada to implement a prototype of BPL for University campus and nearby villages.

  • Africa and the Middle East:
    • Egypt
      Egypt
      Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

      : The Engineering Office for Integrated Projects (EOIP) has deployed PLC technology widely in Alexandria
      Alexandria
      Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

      , Fayed
      Fayed
      -People:*Ali Al-Fayed, Mohamed Al-Fayed's younger brother*Ayman al-Fayed, Palestinian militant*Dodi Fayed, Mohamed Al-Fayed's son*Guillermo Fayed, French Olympic skier*Mohamed Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman...

      , and Tanta
      Tanta
      Tanta is a city in Egypt. It is the country's fifth largest populated area, with an estimated 429,000 inhabitants . Tanta is located north of Cairo and southeast of Alexandria...

      . Based on a locally developed system, the company provides AMR for electricity utilities. Currently, the company has about 70,000 subscribers.
    • South Africa
      South Africa
      The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

      : Goal Technology Solutions (GTS) trialled the technology and is offering service in the suburbs of Pretoria
      Pretoria
      Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

      , and plans to extend it to other areas. The tests were done with Mitsubishi equipment using a DS2 chipset, and the company claims a maximum throughput of 90 Mbits/s although initially only "512 Kbits/s ADSL equivalent speeds" are available. Now it uses DefiDev's equipment, and according to GTS's website, it will expand available bandwidth up to 5-20 Mbits/s.
    • Ghana
      Ghana
      Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

      :
      • Cactel Communications, Ltd. successfully deployed an MV solution pilot project in the Graphic Communications Group in Accra
        Accra
        Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...

         in June, 2005.
      • A Cactel Remote Energy Management System
        Energy management system
        An energy management system is a system of computer-aided tools used by operators of electric utility grids to monitor, control, and optimize the performance of the generation and/or transmission system...

         (REMS) pilot project for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is running a 40-user pilot project at the University of Ghana in Legon. The current project combines fiber, radio link, Wi-Fi
        Wi-Fi
        Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

         and PLC to provide broadband internet access and telephony. It showcases the interoperability
        Interoperability
        Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together . The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, or alternatively in a broad sense, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system to...

         of PLC technology and the company's expertise in emerging market design and deployment. Cactel hopes to deploy nationally, and is in deliberations with the national stakeholders and with Ghana's Ministry of Communications (MoC).
      • AllTerra Communications successfully implemented a pilot test of broadband over power lines in Akosombo. In partnership with VRA, this test involves demonstrating transmission of broadband from medium to low voltage signals. AllTerra is working with VRA to expand the pilot project to include essential grid management utilities that will help balance and manage the current electricity transmission throughout their various substations. Using IT as a catalyst for economic development, AllTerra is expanding into numerous areas throughout Ghana.
    • Saudi Arabia
      Saudi Arabia
      The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

      :
      • ElectroNet has been working with the Saudi Electric Company since 2005 on a pilot project using broadband over power lines over medium voltage cables and linking into low voltage distribution within a shopping mall. The pilot project also integrates automatic meter readers.
      • Powerlines Communications Co. Ltd. implemented an AMR pilot project for Saudi Electricity Company in 2006. The project was located in the city of Jeddah on the west coast of Saudi Arabia. Digital KWh meters were installed in parallel with analog KWh meters. Readings taken by the Saudi Electricity Company showed variations of less than 1%. A BPL pilot project was included.
      • Saudi Arabian Computer Management Consultants (SACMAC) has signed a deal to become an official system integrator and distributor for Mitsubishi
        Mitsubishi
        The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

         PLC. It is expected to become a great success, because the existing broadband service, monopolized by the Saudi Telecom Company
        Saudi Telecom Company
        Saudi Telecom Group, STC is a Saudi Arabia-based telecommunications company that offers landline, mobile and Internet services.-Background:...

        , is expensive and has poor customer service (some clients report that company techs arrive months after ordering). SACMAC has declined to talk about specifics of availability and price but says it will start rolling out the service in a few months (as of May 2006) and its price will be lower than current broadband providers.

Concluded deployments

The following deployments have ended:
  • Australia, Tasmania
    Tasmania
    Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

    : In November 2007, electricity retailer Aurora Energy
    Aurora Energy
    The electricity retail company Aurora Energy was formed by the dis-aggregation of the Hydro Electric Commission in Tasmania, Australia, on 1 July 1998...

     ended its involvement with BPL and announced it was switching to Optical Fiber
    Optical fiber
    An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...

    . This ended their commercial trial begun in September 2005, offering BPL services to 500 homes in the suburb of Tolmans Hill
    Tolmans Hill, Tasmania
    Tolmans Hill is a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is likely to be the last large scale greenfield suburban development to take place within Hobart city....

     near Hobart, which had followed a successful technological trial earlier that year.

  • Portugal ended BPL/PLC deployments in the country in October 2006, reportedly for economic reasons. ,

  • Russian Federation
    Russia
    Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

    : In September 2008, Russia's only BPL provider Electro-com ended deployments in Moscow for economic reasons.

  • Spain: In May 2007 Iberdrola
    Iberdrola
    Iberdrola , headquartered in Bilbao, is a private utility with a global footprint and over 150 years of experience...

     and Endesa
    Endesa (Spain)
    Endesa, S.A. is the largest electric utility company in Spain. The firm, a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility company Enel, has 10 million customers in Spain, with domestic annual generation of over 97,600 GWh from nuclear, fossil-fueled, hydroelectric, and renewable resource power...

     (the main power companies in Spain) ended their projects to deploy PLC.

  • United States: As of April 2007, Motorola
    Motorola
    Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

     has shuttered its Powerline LV Access BPL and reportedly plans to re-purpose the technology to a new system called Powerline MU, which is for use within multiple-unit dwellings. Motorola's system uses only residential-side low-voltage power lines for transmission to reduce the antenna effect, and successfully demonstrated frequency-notching for reduced potential for interference over the Amperion Inc. and Current Technologies LLC systems. Motorola invited the American Radio Relay League
    American Radio Relay League
    The American Radio Relay League is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the USA. ARRL is a non-profit organization, and was founded in May 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim of Hartford, Connecticut...

    to participate with these tests, and even installed the Motorola system at their headquarters. Preliminary results were very positive with regard to interference, because the Motorola system does not use BPL on the powerlines leading up to the neighborhood. The BPL carrier is only used for the last leg of the trip from the pole to the house, and gets the signal to the pole via radio. This limits the interference to the area surrounding the last leg to the house.
    • The following other BPL deployments in the US are dismantled as of May 2008:
      Location Electric provider Equipment Service provider Reference (if not )
      AL, Hoover (and other cities) Southern Company Various
      AZ, Cottonwood Arizona Power Systems (APS) Mitsubishi
      CA, Menlo Park Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Main.net
      CA, Rosemead Southern California Edison (SCE) Current Technologies
      CA, San Diego San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) Various
      CT, Shelton United Illuminating Amperion
      FL, Graceville West Florida Electric Cooperative Ascom
      FL, Miami Florida Power and Light Amperion and Main.net
      GA, Douglasville Greystone Power Mitsubishi
      GA, Young Harris The Sphigler Group Main.net
      HI, Honolulu Honolulu Electric Company Current Technologies
      IA, Cedar Rapids Alliant Energy Amperion
      ID, Boise IDACorp Various
      IN, Liberty Whitewater RMEMC Corinex
      MD, Hughesville Southern Maryland Electric Company Current Technologies
      MD, Potomac PEPCO Current Technologies
      MN, Rochester Rochester Public Utilities Main.net
      MO, Lees Summit Aquila Amperion
      NC, Raleigh Progress Energy Amperion
      OH, Cincinnati Duke Energy Current Technologies
      NY, Penn Yan Penn Yan Power and Light Amperion
      PA, Allentown Pennsylvania Power and Light Main.net and Amperion
      TN, Fayetteville Fayetteville Public Utilities Grid Stream
      TX, Dallas Oncor Electric Delivery Company Current
      TX, Austin Austin Electric Energy Corinex
      TX, Flatonia Broadband Horizons Unknown
      TX, Weimar Fayette Electric Cooperative PowerWan
      VA, Roanoke American Electric Power Mitsubishi
      WA, Wenatchee Heights, Chelan County PUD Gridstream
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