Telecommunications
has been the fastest growing industry of
all time. It will continue to grow as the
rest of the world begins to require the same
information systems to which developed countries
have become accustomed. Electric utilities,
with their unique experience of delivering
services under any conditions, are the perfect
vehicle, when enabled with BPL, for providing
local telecommunications pipelines as part
of a global network.
The power distribution system has been
used for many years as a communications
transmission medium, at low data rates
for limited applications, especially to
manage some parts of the transmission and
distribution network remotely. Among the
problems of the previous system architecture
for utilities are the limited bandwidth
of the previous technology and the high
cost of components for such low bandwidth.
The electric utilities have the customer
base, the rights of way, the brand name,
work crews, experience, and many attributes
that fit perfectly with becoming a telecommunications
provider. Electric utilities are one of
two industries that have nearly 100% consumer
penetration. Curiously, the other one (telephone),
although seemingly better positioned to
offer consumer broadband services, has
so far been somewhat ineffective, offering
a less-than-optimum product over a limited
market area.
This electric utility reach creates an
enormous opportunity for the BPL industry.
Today in the United States alone there
are approximately 125 million utility customers.
In addition to this, the broadband market
is one of the fastest growing markets today.
Within the next five years the US broadband
market is expected to more than double.
This number will increase with new technologies
reaching out to consumers who are unable
to receive broadband due to cost or distance.
Ambient has worked with a number of utility,
technology, and service companies to develop
the Ambient BPL system and is continuing
to establish and maintain such relationships
to supplement its system and services.
Current activities are focused on the implementation
and marketing of Ambient’s BPL system
architectures and technology solutions
for use on low and medium voltage systems.
Ambient has successfully installed and
demonstrated the viability of its BPL design
and equipment. In consumer broadband applications,
delivering bandwidth of more than 4 Mbps
to the customer has been achieved. In addition,
other applications, such as surveillance
and remote monitoring of industrial processes,
are also in operation. Nevertheless, Ambient
continues to improve its technology and
system architecture to further enhance
broadband speeds and to develop added applications.
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for a larger version
The above diagram depicts Ambient’s
flexible “end-to-end” BPL architecture,
Ambient’s network architecture can
also provide cost effective, “last
mile” agnostic backhaul solutions
for utility applications or broadband services.
Utility applications of primary interest
to the core utility include Automated Meter
Reading, Load Management/Control and Asset
Management. Most solutions that enable
these utility applications are accessed
by either 900 Mhz wireless or low bit rate
PLC. Thus, a utility landlord or a property
manager can leverage the Ambient BPL backbone
and access the network for landlord management
purposes using a variety of other technologies.
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