Canada's Northern Telecom (Nortel), in conjunction with Britain's Norweb Communications, recently announced a powerful new way to wire the continent: high-speed Internet access over power lines. Although service prices and options haven't been established, one possibility – with a setup cost comparable to the price of an ISDN card – would deliver bits at speeds exceeding 1 Mbps. The technology shields data traffic from the disruptive electrical noise inherent in power cables. Nortel officials see this power-line carrier as a means to enter Europe's telco-dominated voice and data delivery market without having to pay their way into the telco-owned local loop.
US residents shouldn't abandon their ISPs yet, though. Differences between European and US electrical infrastructures will make the service considerably more expensive stateside. So while US utilities have shown immense interest in the service, they'll have to overcome its greatest obstacle: sticker shock.
This article originally appeared in the December issue of Wired magazine.
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