• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Manassas, Va., Lands BPL

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Michael Zitz, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

Oct. 6--MANASSAS--Soon every small town in America may have "tech envy" for a Washington suburb previously best known for the Civil War's Battle of Bull Run.

Now Manassas is battling for Internet independence from the telephone and cable companies America's been forced to depend on to deliver fast, reliable, affordable Internet access.

What's being called "the Manassas experiment" may provide the Prince William County city with a place in high-tech history.

Manassas has become the first city in America where every family can access high-speed Internet service simply by plugging into a common electrical wall socket.

In the past, Internet access has required the use of a phone line, cable television service, or a satellite subscription.

The technology being put to use in Manassas is called broadband over power line (BPL) and it carries data over the city's electrical grid.

BPL uses existing infrastructure to transmit high-speed communications data--including broadband Internet access.

Customers are provided with a modem to plug into their home electrical sockets, said Ailis Aaron, a spokeswoman for Communications Technologies Inc. (COMTek), a 900-employee Chantilly telecommunications company.

The service, which costs $28.95 per month, has been phased in gradually across the city since July, she said.

About 12,500 homes, 2,500 businesses and 37,000 people in Manassas now have the option of subscribing.

Aaron said the service provides Internet access at 800 kbps for some customers, 500 kbps for most and at least 300 kbps for all.

The American Public Power Association's Demonstration of Energy Efficient Developments program gave Manassas a grant in 2001 study BPL as a way of providing Internet access over existing power lines. The city's early pursuit of the technology led to it being the first to offer it to all residents.

Last year the city of Manassas chose COMTek to serve as its Internet service provider, offering e--mail and Web hosting for BPL customers.

Manassas Mayor Douglas Waldron called it "a major enhancement of what our city-owned utility provides to its customers.

"We have accomplished something here that will be a model for other cities and towns across the United States," the mayor said.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R--Va.) said, "Congress is looking closely at ways to improve broadband access in rural and other non-urban settings, and that's why I'm so encouraged by the Manassas success with broadband over power line... Now the challenge is to make this same sort of success story blossom across the nation." COMTek chief executive officer Joseph E. Fergus said, "What we are announcing today in Manassas is something that we could be rolling out in a year or two in literally scores of communities across the United States.

"The Manassas experiment is a good thing for every American who lives in any city or town with little or no access to affordable broadband," Fergus said.

According to the New Millennium Research Council, there are over 20 BPL projects under way across America, serving about 250,000 homes.

-----

To see more of The Free Lance-Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://fredericksburg.com/flshome.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Free Lance-Star

More News in this Category