Empowering the World's Broadband

Island looking for faster logon

Island Co-op negotiating for broadband service via power lines

By Paige Funkhouser
Advocate staff reporter

By the end of the year, power lines on Washington Island may have another job besides carrying electricity and phone calls. If plans by the Washington Island Electric Cooperative succeed, the lines also will carry high-speed Internet through expanding technology called Broadband-on-the-Powerlines, or simply, BPL. The change stemmed from a survey last spring when 36 percent of 800 Island property owners indicated an interest in bringing high-speed Internet service to their homes and businesses. Now, Island Internet service is limited to slow and unreliable dial-up Internet, expensive satellite services and, for people within a line-of-sight to the Peninsula, some wireless connections.

BPL technology became available in the 1990s, according to Co-op manager Robert Cornell. However, imperfections in the technology and interference with radio signals kept BPL from extensive deployment into communities around the U.S., he said. Now, Cornell continued, the technology is stable enough to provide Islanders with high-speed Internet. "It's an exciting project," Cornell said. "You wouldn't think getting high-speed Internet would be that important to people, but it really is. From an economic standpoint, it's going to benefit the Island. "For people with businesses off the Island," Cornell continued, "people can telecommute better. So instead of spending a weekend, they might spend a week, and what does that do for the Island? They're buying more groceries, gas, electricity, etc."

The Island co-op connected with International Broadband Electric Communications Inc., a company based in Alabama that specializes in connecting rural electric cooperatives to BPL. IBEC was established as an Internet service provider in 1995, and in 2005 began deploying BPL pilot systems at cooperatives in Alabama, Indiana and Virginia. The deployments were made possible by a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative that allocated $4 billion to technology and broadband programs several years ago, according to Scott Lee, chief executive officer at IBEC.

The initiative, he said, can be compared to the federal program that brought electricity to rural areas in the 1930s. "The initiative assists companies like ours in installing broadband to rural areas," Lee said. "We just filed for a Rural Utilities Service loan to help fund the agreement with Washington Island and the 12 other cooperatives in nine states." The systems IBEC installs piggyback on existing power lines and the wiring already installed in homes and businesses to deliver broadband Internet directly to personal computers and electric outlets. There is no need (or cost) to install any additional wires, simplifying the process of digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable modem systems, Cornell explained. BPL travels in shortwave frequencies similar to those used by amateur, or ham, radio operators.

The IBEC systems can operate up to 500 kilobits per second, which is 10-20 times faster than dial-up, similar to DSL and slower than cable. Users access the system by plugging their computers into modems the size of small books < Cornell called them "wall worts" < that in turn plug into electrical outlets. The modems receive the radio signals from the power lines and convert them into a digital Internet connection. Due to the low power radio signal fed into the power lines, IBEC must install regenerator boxes on the power lines every half-mile to filter out static and boost the signals.

The customer cost to hook up to BPL is estimated at $99 for each wall wort and a minimum $29.95 monthly service fee. The cost increases incrementally with connection speed. For BPL customers, the connection speed ranges of 256 kilobits per second to 3 megabits per second are synchronous, meaning a user can download a picture just as fast as it can be transmitted. The deployment costs will not be passed on to the customers, Lee said. He would not confirm a price tag for the deployment, but estimated that the cost would be less than $5 million. The USDA received the IBEC application for a loan last week, and a 90- to 120-day review is under way, Lee said. "We're hoping to receive that funding this year," Lee said. "As soon as we get it, we'll get it scheduled for deployment. We've had tremendous interest from the people up there. We've already had 168 people pre-sign for service. That's 15 to 16 percent of the population." According to Lee and Cornell, the town of Washington will not pay any installation costs for BPL, and the municipality will have minimal involvement in the process. The only costs to the co-op will be wages for installation workers, the cost of truck fuel costs and the expense of sending monthly bills to Island customers. The co-op will recoup costs for maintaining the system and billing customers with a 10 percent payback from IBEC.

If 400 Islanders subscribe to BPL at the base service, the co-op will receive $1,198 a month. If the loan is approved, co-op linemen will be trained to install the system and the 110-miles of power lines on the Island ought to be in the network by late 2006, Lee said. "The co-op provides the backbone access," Lee said. "We install our infrastructure at the Washington Island power substation and then inject our signal onto their lines." Down the line, Lee said, IBEC is looking at video-on-demand service, utility applications for the co-op and automatic meter reading which would make co-op service more efficient. "IBEC is investing in the Island," Cornell said. "If you look at the Island, we're unique with only 1,100 electric meters, 850 members. "This is just conjecture," Cornell added, "but I think IBEC sees us as a good marketing site. They'll put us on the map by saying they're doing an entire island. That puts us in a good place. If they're going to use us as a marketing tool, they're going to give us A No. 1 service."

Reproduced with permission from Gannett Co Inc., publishers of the Door County Advocate (1-920-743-3321, www.doorcountyadvocate.com))

Posted in News on 2005-08-29.