IP Television, television provided via the Internet, is expected to be interlinked in the home via your standard electric socket - no cables, no wireless links, just plug in the power cord and all your IP TVs will be networked together. So can you put off those plans to buy those WiFi networks to hook the kids computers to your network, or perhaps get rid of those WiFi plans at the office. Perhaps so. According to Jorge Blasco, President DS2, a powerline modem chip company based in Spain, "It is becoming obvious that operators are targeting powerline communications as the only feasible solution for their IP TV rollout strategies. Our partnership effort with Corinex ensures that operators worldwide will achieve the best price and performance when deploying new multimedia services." Mr. Blasco refers here to Corinex Communications Corp. DS2 and Corinex have recently announced the availability of what they call the first embedded powerline solution. The 200 Mbps chip and embedded software solution allows manufacturers of PCs, set top boxes and ADSL2+ residential gateways to integrate powerline communication technology into their products.

"Most major tier one operators in North America and Europe are already in field trials or laboratory tests with Corinex's 200 Mbps powerline technology," stated Brian Donnelly, Director of Business Development for Corinex. "We believe our new embedded solution allowing carriers to offer cost effective simultaneous multiple video streaming services and ultra high-speed internet connectivity with secure VLAN tagging will enable first adopters to have a significant market advantage. Several companies have been asking for this solution and Corinex is happy to be delivering." Corinex Communications Corp. provides HomePlug, Video, and IP telephony customer premise solutions,which includes distributing full motion HDTV video signals to its VideoPhone and VoIP technologies.

Victor Dominguez, DS2 Director of Strategy and Standardization indicated that powerline technology had passed all the necessary hurdles for market acceptance. He stated, "After acceptance by the UPA (Universal Powerline Association), ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute) and OPERA (Open PLC European Research Alliance) the 200 Mbps powerline solution is becoming the standard of choice in ADSL2+ deployment strategies by operators."

Arkados Obtains Powerline Passive Optical Network Patent

The Passive Optical Network market, or PON market,  is expected to allow the lowest cost, last mile connections from the office or home to the telecommunications network. Passave Technologies and Teknovus are two chip companies that expect to grow with the PON market.   A patent recently awarded to Arkados, Inc. a subsidiary of CDKnet.com, suggests that Arkados, a powerline chip company,  also sees potential in the PON market.  Arkados was awarded U.S. patent 6,844,809, entitled “Passive Optical Network Backhaul for Powerline Communications” The patent alludes to a method to connect a PON to a powerline communications network.

Power Line Communications Chip Company Amends $5 Million Agreement

Advanced Networks Inc, a power line communications chip company, has waived its initial royalty payments from New Visual Corp., another chip company, which offers high speed transport processors. The payment involves the first $5 million payment from New Visual.  That payment is related to a license for Adaptive’s PowerStream technology.  New Visual’s transport processors offer high speed data transmission over copper wires and have applications for VoIP and HDTV home and business applications. Whether or not Adaptive Networks and New Visual will merge their respective electric  and telephone wire technology into one solution is yet to be seen

Will Power Line Communications Replace Coaxial Networks?

Power line communications, or the technology that permits data to be transmitted over the power grid, could become an issue for companies that now just offer plain old over the coaxial wire data transmission. DS2 reported that it had tremendous interest at its booth at the Consumer Electronic Show with its 200 Mbps power line chip set exhibit. Featured there were PLC-to-Ethernet Bridges from Corinex Communications and Sumitomo Electric Industries. Besides that there were also consumer appliances built on the technology, and even products that showed how one could enjoy HDTV without a data cable hookup. As a result of all this, DS2 received the CES Best of Innovations Award in the Software and Embedded Systems Category as well as a visit from the Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). .

In other power line communication news, Ambient Corporation announced that it had received a patent related to the technology. Specifically U.S. Patent Number 6,844,810, "Arrangement of a Data Coupler for Power Line Communications."