The California Public Utilities Commission approved a plan on
Thursday allowing providers of high-speed Internet services to test
electricity lines to deliver online access throughout the state.

CPUC
commissioner Rachelle Chong, who drafted the plan, said broadband over
power lines, or BPL, could become a new competitor to Internet services
delivered via telephone, cable and satellites and help reduce prices
for consumers.

BPL uses existing utility lines delivering power to neighborhoods to carry broadband signals into homes.

It has been touted by equipment makers and regulators as a
possible competitor to cable and telecommunications services, which
handle almost all of the roughly 40 million U.S. residential broadband
connections.

BPL technology also could allow utilities to develop
so- called smart grid applications to more actively monitor and manage
the distribution of electricity, said Chong, a former member of the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

Until recently, U.S.
utilities interested in BPL have faced various financial and technical
problems. The signals that carry data over electrical lines can cause
interference with radio equipment and can travel only a short distance
before weakening, requiring repeaters in many areas.

Nevertheless,
utilities such as TXU Corp., Texas’s largest utility, and Cinergy Corp.
in Ohio are testing the service with privately held BPL provider
Current Communications Group, of Germantown, Maryland.

The
company also is working on early trials with two California utilities
– Edison International’s Southern California Edison subsidiary and the
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a municipally-owned utility.

By Leonard Anderson
Reuters.com