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  • 12-05-2003 11:18am
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭


    I've been following PLC for quite some time, and I sincerely hope the ESB has too. It has massive potential and we desperately need an alternative to DSL and compliment to wireless in Ireland.
    Power talk

    Broadband: Utilities are testing a potentially revolutionary new system that transmits high- speed data over power lines.

    By Dan Thanh Dang
    Sun Staff
    Originally published May 11, 2003

    Power lines aren't just for electricity anymore.

    When David Reese surfs the Web for information on Liberia, sends e-mail to his friend in San Francisco or compares hundreds of General Tsao's Chicken recipes from all over the world, all the 74-year-old economist has to do is plug his computer into any power outlet in his home.

    Reese's Potomac home transmits and receives all that data over the same wires that power his toaster and light his living room. They provide not only Internet service but also digital movies, telephone service, satellite radio and video games. There is no fuss with cable modems or a telephone line.

    "I've already gotten addicted to the convenience of this," said Reese, one of a hundred guinea pigs in a six-month pilot program testing innovative power line communications (PLC) technology in Potomac. "I'm always connected. It's fast. There's no dialing, and all I have to do is plug it into the wall."

    [...]
    Time for a little humour. You think we have it bad? Spare a thought for phone users in Illinois, where the Democrats, Governor and Mayor (in a roundabout way) have just effectively handed a monopoly back to the local Baby Bell, SBC; demonstrating incompetence and corruption on a scale that would put even Irish politicians to shame.
    Sweeping SBC rate law signed

    Fast-tracked bill passes Senate on 2nd attempt

    By Christi Parsons
    Tribune staff reporter
    Published May 10, 2003

    SPRINGFIELD -- A sweeping measure giving telecom titan SBC Communications Inc. greater control over the local phone market powered past consumer concerns and into law Friday, clearing the General Assembly and winning Gov. Rod Blagojevich's signature in a matter of hours.

    The bill nearly doubles the rate SBC can charge phone competitors such as AT&T and MCI to lease its lines. Critics complained that forcing up wholesale rates would translate into higher phone bills for consumers and businesses--and possibly drive SBC's competitors for local service out of the market.

    One state utility regulator said the measure could allow SBC to impose wholesale rate hikes by early June. Opponents of the measure said they were considering a legal challenge to the new law.

    The measure passed the Illinois Senate 30-24 Friday morning with mostly Democratic support--a quick rebound for the clout-heavy Texas-based telecommunications giant after a failed vote the night before. It had the strong backing of organized labor, which had poured millions of dollars into Blagojevich's campaign last year.

    With SBC and its competitors hiring armies of lobbyists to press their cases, the measure had passed the House by a 66-39 vote only Wednesday. The next day Blagojevich declined to take a position on the bill, saying he hadn't had a chance to look at it.

    But so strong was the pressure to fast-track the legislation that on Friday he signed it into law within hours of the Senate vote. It is extremely rare for an Illinois governor to act on legislation sent to him by the General Assembly before weeks, and sometimes months, have passed.

    [...]
    adam


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