WASHINGTON-Communication Technologies Inc. completed a citywide commercial broadband-over-powerline technology deployment in Manassas, Va. BPL technology uses a city’s electricity grid and the wiring in homes to provide direct plug-in broadband access through electrical sockets, rather than over phone or cable TV lines.
ComTek said the first-of-its-kind network is available to 12,500 Manassas households and 2,500 businesses. The company said it counts 700 customers with another 500 service requests being processed.
ComTek Founder and 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 from now in literally scores of communities across the U.S. The Manassas experiment is a good thing for every American who lives in a city or town with little or no access to affordable broadband.”
The cost for residential customers is $29 per month with no deposits and no long-term commitments.
ComTek said that by bundling radio-frequency energy on the same line with the electrical current that already is carried in the wiring, data can be transmitted without the need for a second line. Because the electrical current and RF energy signals carrying the data operate at different frequencies, the two do not interfere with each other.
The deployment is notable as several cities around the country explore and experiment with different technologies, including Wi-Fi, to bring broadband Internet access to the masses.
