Plugtek BPL eLibrary :: News Alert: Plugtek Powerline eLibrary Nov 22 2004

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22.November.2004
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News Alert!
Category: Articles

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Affordable broadband might soon be available to rural Va.


By BERTRAND M. GUTIERREZ
The News Virginian
Monday, November 22, 2004


An Alabama broadband company plans to push a revolutionary high-speed
service in sparsely populated areas of rural Virginia, including Augusta
and Nelson counties, company officials say.

Residents in more densely populated areas such as Waynesboro have several
options for high-speed Internet service, including cable, DSL, satellite
and portable broadband. People who live on the fringes of Augusta and
Nelson counties, however, are limited to either dial-up service or
shelling out $50 a month for satellite Internet service.

IBEC wants to change that.

Instead of connecting to cable or phone lines, customers of International
Broadband Electric Communications, or IBEC, just plug their computers into
a power socket for broadband (high-speed) Internet service, which is
approximately 20 times faster than dial-up service.

The product has been offered since July in the Lovingston area for $29.95
a month to account holders of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, or
CVEC. Residents of Afton and other Nelson County areas will be able to buy
broadband over powerline, or BPL, in the spring, officials say.

IBEC?s chief operating officer, Steve Turner, says the Huntsville, Ala.,
company must partner with a power company to offer the product. The power
company provides the line while IBEC provides the broadband service.

CVEC spokesman Greg Kelly says the broadband-over-powerline product is so
popular that IBEC is poised to roll out the product to CVEC?s 30,000-plus
members.

Money for the project could come from a federal program designed to help
Web surfers hop on the broadband bandwagon.

The U.S. Agriculture Department?s Rural Development office offers loans to
companies like IBEC interested in installing broadband to rural areas with
20,000 residents or less. The Rural Utility Service is reviewing IBEC?s
application to provide the service throughout Augusta and Nelson counties
as well as other rural Virginia communities, Turner says.

Bringing high-speed Internet service at a competitive price is in line
with the electric cooperative?s mission, Kelly adds.

"The co-op is doing this only because the service really isn?t available
in most of the territory we serve," Kelly says. "The goal really is to
provide the service at an affordable rate where you break even after all
the bills are paid."

But if IBEC wants to broaden its broadband base, it?ll have to partner
with power companies in other territories.

In Augusta County, for instance, Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative
officials say they?re taking a wait-and-see approach. Two concerns must be
satisfied before the co-op offers BPL to account holders: reliability and
affordability.

Until the BPL question is resolved, the Mount Crawford-based electric
cooperative is set to offer satellite service in April to account holders
for $49.95 through a company it manages, North River Telephone
Cooperative.

"We have signed on for satellite," President and CEO Doug Wine says.

"What?s good about this versus cable, DSL or even broadband over powerline
is: If you put the service in for one person, but five or six others don?t
want it, you?ve got to put all that investment in to serve the one person,
but satellite?s already up. I think for a rural area, satellite will be a
pretty feasible way to go," Wine says.

But Central Virginia Electric Cooperative didn?t pay a cent to roll out
broadband over powerline - except for manpower. IBEC?s plug-and-play BPL
is serviced and installed by the Huntsville, Ala., company, not the co-op,
Kelly says.

"This is really about economic development, job creation and quality of
life. People are going to be more and more mobile, and in order to have
economic opportunity in a rural area, their going to need a broadband
connection," Kelly adds.

Though Shenandoah Valley has not signed on for BPL, company officials say
they have been monitoring the pilot program in Lovingston and might
consider offering the product once it earns a few stripes.

With BPL charging through rural Virginia via CVEC, officials with
Waynesboro-based nTelos - a regional telecom that offers landline,
wireless, DSL and portable broadband products - say they have few
competitive concerns.

"At this point and time, [BPL] doesn?t affect nTelos because it isn?t
being deployed where we have broadband service," spokesman Mike Minnis
says.

Contact Bertrand M. Gutierrez at bgutierrez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.newsvirginian.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WNV%2FMGArticle%2FWNV_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779282052&path=!news!localnews&tacodalogin=no




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