Broadband over power lines: the FCC's role

摘要

In recent years, electric power companies have been sleeping giants when it comes to providing telecommunications and information services. Though the last decade brought about some experimentation in strategic relationships with companies such as RCN, utilities generally kept to their knitting, focusing on new competitive threats to their core business instead of crossing over into new businesses where they would compete with entrenched telephone and cable companies. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently adopted rules describing its role in regulating access to broadband over power lines (BPL). The rules, adopted October 14, 2004, establish technical standards, interference management and mitigation requirements, and equipment approval processes. This could lead to some new thinking by electric power companies.