2006 Australia - Broadband Powerlines - Moving into Home Management

Publication Date	June 2006
Publisher	BuddeComm
Product Type	Report
Pages	120
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	BUD00042

Price

£425.00
approximately: $794 | €539

PDF

PRINT £370 ($691 | €469)

Order above formats by FAX

Summary

Utilities and telecommunications

Much has been said of the lack of infrastructure competition in the Australian market, and one sector that after some rough starts are now successfully entering the telecommunications business is the utility industry. Players like PowerTel, Uecomm and TransACT are early examples of business borne out of power companies.

However, by the 2000s the focus had changed to broadband based Customer Access Networks (CANs). Over the last five years more than 35 fibre loops have been built by utilities in cities and towns around the country.

Key players

UtiliTel is an informal forum of electric power utilities that have been co-operating over the past several years to canvas and pursue mutual interests relating to their telecommunications assets. A number of UtiliTel members have commercialised their telecommunications activities and some hold carrier licences, or have otherwise moved to provide infrastructure or end services to the telecommunications industry.

Key players here include Aurora, Country Energy, Silk Telecom, Nexium, Transgrid and others. State governments became active promoters of utilities-based broadband projects. UtiliTel is another initiative in this respect. This report overviews these initiatives and the first utilities-based broadband projects that are emerging.

Broadband Power Lines

It is a natural extension of business activity for a power company to enter into telecommunications. New developments in Broadband Power Line (BPL) technologies are making it possible for these utilities to enter the more lucrative broadband market.

Power utilities could play a key role in broadband infrastructure competition. However, problems exist in relation to international standards and radio interference. This last issue is being fiercely debated and needs to be resolved before commercial deployment can take place. ACMA has created a regulatory environment that allows for BPL trials and pilots.

After technical trials in 2004, commercial trials were launched during 2005 in Hobart and Queanbeyan. Full commercial operations are expected in late 2006. Large-scale rollouts are still at least one or two years away.

3rd national broadband platform

Power Line Communications (PLC) has been used since the 1890s to send low level telecoms signals out to activate or deactivate devices along the electricity grid. This technology was further developed over the last century and is used, for example, for the off-peak hot water service that most electricity companies offer their customers nowadays. BPL started to arrive in the late 1990s.

Simultaneously, the energy companies are also being forced to look for telecoms solutions for their core business and are looking at Demand Side Management services to better manage their network, offer better services to their customers and handle the gigantic increase in electricity demand throughout the world and at the same time manage security issues and the environmental impact of all of that. This could well lead to a 3rd national broadband platform next to telecoms and digital TV.

Technical issues

The report discusses the many variations in Low Voltage and Medium Voltage powerline architecture, including the 'small transformer' system used in North America and the 'large transformer' approach used in 230 volt countries. Propagation, attenuation, interference and other characteristics of these networks result in a variety of architectures for access BPL networks.

Standards-setting include:

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and powerline communication industry associations;
HomePlug 1.0 in-home PLC system and its successor, HomePlug AV (Audio Visual)- on which the access technology HomePlug BPL will be based;
OPERA BPL standard and survey of powerline architectures, attenuation and noise;
Universal Powerline Association (UPA).
The report surveys the technical principles and performance of major BPL access systems from manufacturers including Motorola, Mitsubishi, Amperion and Current Technologies, including their BPL trials, including the actual performance of second generation Mitsubishi equipment, and commercial services including a 256Kb/s rural BPL service and some multi-megabit/sec services in urban USA and Europe.

After discussing the best known objection to BPL access services: interference, we examine the better established alternative technologies which BPL typically competes with, particularly those technologies which might be more easily deployed by a power utility. Finally, we discuss the barriers which BPL access systems must overcome if they are to achieve the long awaited wide adoption and low costs.

Content

1. The Market In 2006
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 New opportunities in home networks
- 1.3 BPL as an access technology - analysis 2006
  - 1.3.1 Selecting the right business model
  - 1.3.2 Second generation has arrived
  - 1.3.3 Third broadband network into the home
  - 1.3.4 Regional opportunities
  - 1.3.5 Utilities propelled into a growth market
  - 1.3.6 UtiliTel - Australia's BPL incubator
  - 1.3.7 BPL recognised as a threat to Telstra and Optus
  - 1.3.8 VoIP over BPL
  - 1.3.9 BPL - superior to ADSL
- 1.4 Forecasting BPL
- 1.5 Analysis of the National BPL Summit - November 2005
  - 1.5.1 BPL for last-mile broadband access
  - 1.5.2 DSM applications for residential users
  - 1.5.3 Mini-WANs
  - 1.5.4 Conclusions
- 1.6 BPL standards
- 1.7 BPL - one step closer to reality
- 1.8 Radio interference
  - 1.8.1 No harmfull radio interference
  - 1.8.2 Radio amateurs release BPL report
  - 1.8.3 Industry seeking solutions
2. Demand Side Management
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 BPL for home automation services - analysis
- 2.3 Demand Side Management
  - 2.3.1 Services overview
  - 2.3.2 DSM applications for residential users
- 2.4 Smart meter readers
- 2.5 Remote monitoring
  - 2.5.1 Intermoco
  - 2.5.2 AMRS (Aust) Pty Ltd
- 2.6 Home networking
- 2.7 Wireless IP technology for the SCADA industry
  - 2.7.1 Introduction
  - 2.7.2 Wireless IP technology
  - 2.7.3 Benefits for SCADA operators
  - 2.7.4 Technology choices
3. Broadband Power Line Projects And Forecasts
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 BPL - one step closer to reality
- 3.3 BPL forecasts
  - 3.3.1 The future of BPL - analysis mid-2006
  - 3.3.2 Looking towards 2015
- 3.4 Broadband power line pilots
  - 3.4.1 UtiliTel cooperation
  - 3.4.2 Newcastle trial
  - 3.4.3 Aurora Tasmania - first global commercial BPL service
  - 3.4.4 Queanbeyan trial
  - 3.4.5 Silk Telecom
- 3.5 BPL home networks
4. Energy Utilities Markets
- 4.1 The Australian utilities market
  - 4.1.1 Market overview
  - 4.1.2 Investments
  - 4.1.3 Deregulation of the market
  - 4.1.4 Industry groups and their move into telecoms
  - 4.1.5 Changes to the energy market
  - 4.1.6 Utilities need to expand
  - 4.1.7 Alternative infrastructure suppliers
- 4.2 UtiliTel
- 4.3 Marketing and business issues
  - 4.3.1 Energy - and telecommunications services
  - 4.3.2 Will they deliver competition?
  - 4.3.3 Shake-out in energy industries
5. Major Players
- 5.1 The role of utilities in telecoms
  - 5.1.1 The first attempts
  - 5.1.2 New directions
  - 5.1.3 UtiliTel
- 5.2 Aurora Energy and Tastel
- 5.3 Country Energy
  - 5.3.1 Overview
  - 5.3.2 Telco activities
  - 5.3.3 Radio over IP Solution
- 5.4 Silk Telecom
  - 5.4.1 ETSA Telecom
  - 5.4.2 Silk and Adam Internet do Adelaide
- 5.5 Powerlink and Ergon in Queensland
  - 5.5.1 Company overview Powerlink
  - 5.5.2 Telecommunications activities
  - 5.5.3 MOU with AARNet
  - 5.5.4 Nexium will distribute services
  - 5.5.5 Nexium Telecommunications
  - 5.5.6 The new network
- 5.6 PowerTel
- 5.7 SP AusNet
  - 5.7.1 Electricity transmission assets
  - 5.7.2 Electricity distribution assets
  - 5.7.3 Gas distribution assets
  - 5.7.4 Telecoms activities
- 5.8 TransACT broadband communications network
- 5.9 TransGrid
  - 5.9.1 NSW high-voltage electricity UTILITY
  - 5.9.2 Telecommunications network
  - 5.9.3 TransGrid and Country Energy in New England
- 5.10 Uecomm
- 5.11 Western Power
  - 5.11.1 CBD Network
  - 5.11.2 Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH)
- 5.12 Other utility initiatives
6. Utilitel
- 6.1 The UtiliTel initiative
- 6.2 The UtiliTel concept
- 6.3 Overview of assets
  - 6.3.1 Track record
- 6.4 UtiliTel moving into 2006
- 6.5 The power of UtiliTel
- 6.6 Infrastructure competition
- 6.7 The role of government
- 6.8 Who will invest in national infrastructure?
- 6.9 The UtiliTel opportunity
- 6.10 My role in UtiliTel
- 6.11 FttH and BPL
- 6.12 Demand Side Management
- 6.13 Historic overview
7. Technology
- 7.1 Architecture and techniques
  - 7.1.1 Introduction
  - 7.1.2 Power infrastructure architectures
  - 7.1.3 BPL techniques and architectures
  - 7.1.4 Propagation, attenuation, isolation and crosstalk
  - 7.1.5 Frequencies and modulation Techniques
- 7.2 Standards and HomePlug PLC
  - 7.2.1 Introduction
  - 7.2.2 Technical standards
  - 7.2.3 HomePlug
- 7.3 OPERA, DS2 BPL and co-existence
  - 7.3.1 DS2
  - 7.3.2 The EU OPERA project
  - 7.3.3 Practical data rates
  - 7.3.4 Market requirements for access BPL and in-home PLC
- 7.4 BPL access systems
  - 7.4.1 Commercial BPL systems
  - 7.4.2 Trials and commercial deployment
- 7.5 Interference and Challenges
  - 7.5.1 Introduction
  - 7.5.2 Interference
  - 7.5.3 A critical view: considering alternatives
  - 7.5.4 Barriers and challenges
8. Glossary Of Abbreviations
List Of Exhibits
- Exhibit 1 - BPL projects Australian utilities
- Exhibit 2 - Smart meters part of environmental blueprint
- Exhibit 3 - Listed energy information/energy management services
- Exhibit 4 - HomePlug from NetComm
- Exhibit 5 - Mobile IP technologies available in Australia
- Exhibit 6 - Key BPL applications
- Exhibit 7 - Newcastle trial
- Exhibit 8 - Country Energy key statistics
- Exhibit 9 - Rural Fibre Towns
- Exhibit 10 - Non-regulated business (telecoms) activities
- Exhibit 11 - Three classes of utilities/carriers
- Exhibit 12 - Telecommunications projects initiated by UtiliTel members
- Exhibit 13 - Listed energy information/energy management services