EU funds broadband over electricity powerlines project
The European Commission has approved EUR 9.6 million in funding to develop the next generation of European powerline technology, which uses national electricity grids to carry data communications and provide internet access. The funding, from the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) will go to the Open PLC European Research Alliance (OPERA), to support field deployments in Europe based on the first open specification for broadband access over Power Line Communications (PLC). Over the next two years, the OPERA project will test the deployment of low cost broadband access for a wide range of applications, including high data rate broadband access, e-learning, telephony, smart home, new intelligent grid services, video on demand, security and e-health. The specification adopted in the OPERA project is based on technology from Spanish BPL chip maker, DS2, and provides throughput of 200 MBit/s. The specification was then developed by the consortium of 37 companies, which comprises electric utilities companies, telecom operators and universities from 10 countries. 'This is truly a major step forward for powerline communications. The level of industry cooperation and support has been overwhelming, allowing OPERA to produce a specification that meets the requirements imposed by global electricity companies,' said Victor Dominguez, Director of Strategy and Standardization at DS2. The new specification will provide interoperability with non-OPERA technologies, guaranteeing that future versions of OPERA technology will be compatible with today's specifications, and smoothing the way for investment in the technology before mass commercial roll out.