By David Gewirtz
Broadband technology is changing at a wildly accelerated pace. Whether it's EvDO technology in your new Treo 700p or WiFi in your local coffee shop, it's clear Internet access is leaving POTS (Plain Ol' Telephone System) connections behind. One of the most exciting areas of innovation is broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, which distributes high-speed Internet connectivity over your household powerlines.
Everything the President of the United States says is carefully planned and vetted, so when President Bush has a comment on an Internet technology, you can get a feel for how important it might become:
We need to get broadband to more Americans and so, therefore, I want to talk about two other ways to get broadband to the consumer. We need to use our power lines better. They go everywhere. It seems to make sense, doesn't it, if what you're looking for is avenues into the home. Well, electricity goes into the home. And so one great opportunity is to spread broadband throughout America via our power lines.
We continue our series of exclusive, strategic interviews with experts in emerging technology. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Chano Gomez, VP of Strategic Development and Marketing for DS2, a company that makes the chip technology that makes broadband over powerline possible. This interview contains our first article-level editorial coverage of BPL, so it's a worthy read.
David:Chano, please introduce yourself and tell us something about your background.
Chano:I am the vice president of technology and strategic partnerships for DS2. I oversee US operations and manage DS2's key partnerships from our office in Santa Clara, CA. Prior to this role, I served as customer support manager for the company, coordinating of all DS2's support activities to our international customers. This included product development support, field support, network design and deployment support and technical training.
David:Help us understand broadband over powerline (BPL). What is it and why is it important?
Chano:Powerline Communications or PLC uses electrical wiring for high speed transmission of data as an alternative to copper wiring, optical fiber or wireless technologies and constitutes a competitive solution to provide a wide array of services such as Internet broadband access, telephony, multimedia and audiovisual services, in-home networking services, energy related applications for utilities, etc.
