The FCC Gives Love to Powerline Broadband

The FCC today slapped the "information service" tag on broadband over powerline (BPL) technology (pdf press release). The move is intended to free the technology from regulation and expedite BPL's ascension as a significant competitor for your broadband dollar. Cable is considered an "information service" (after some legal combat), and DSL was recently reclassified as such by the FCC, also in the hopes that less regulation would lead to increased deployment.

"The Commission’s broadband statistics show that subscribers to BPL Internet access services, although few in number overall, increased by nearly 200% in 2005," says FCC chief Kevin Martin in a prepared statement. "By encouraging the development of new technologies, such as BPL, we can best achieve the President’s goal of universal broadband by the end of 2007," proclaims Martin.

The FCC's last broadband report (pdf) listed 5,859 BPL customers in the United States as of December, 2005. The majority of those customers are participating in utility trials that may, or may not, expand. Many utilities are interested in BPL solely as a smart-network monitoring solution, and are not yet sold on the ROI of getting into the residential broadband business.