Manassas Va. Launches City-Wide Broadband-Over-Powerline (BPL)

I received this announcement today from Communications Technologies Inc. (COMTek), the company that owns and operates the broadband-over-powerlines implementation just launched in the city of Manassas, Virginia. The news release is in our TMCnet news feeds and available at:

First City-Wide Deployment of Broadband-Over-Powerline (BPL) Technology in the U.S. Now Complete in Manassas, Va.

COMTek and the City of Manassas will hold a news conference tomorrow, Oct. 5, 2005, in Manassas. The conference will also be available via streaming media at the COMTek Web site.

I couldn't find any good visuals about BPL on COMTek's Web site, but here is an interesting diagram on the Plexeon Web site showing how BPL might be deployed in a neighborhood.

BPL is somewhat controversial. Amateur radio operators object to unbridled rollout of the technology, as it might interfere with shortwave radio signals. BPL is cited as one of the technologies that can compete with cable and telco broadband rollouts, but some observers are skeptical whether BPL can become useful broadly in the marketplace.

AB -- 10/4/05