Last week, the Austin City Council approved spending up to $317,500 to test Broadband Over Powerline internet service. A spokesman for the group had this to say regarding BPL provider technology in Austin Texas.

‘”Everyone is saying how great this is,” Collins said of broadband over power lines, which for years has been touted as a third high-speed Internet pipe into homes and businesses, competing with cable and the digital subscriber line service offered by phone companies. “All we want to know is, what does this really do?’

As is the case in Texas, the established power companies are unsure how much strain Broadband Over Powerline will put on their existing power grid. With utility companies sometimes competing for more power to push those air conditioners or baseboard heaters, they want to take their time and test this technology first. It’s good to see Broadband Over Powerline testing being done in Austin Texas. Even if BPL isn’t online for a few years, this is a start in the right direction.

When’s Broadband Over Powerline, or BPL coming? We get asked that question by many inquisitive and broadband hungry powerusers. Broadbandfocus.com recently read an interview with an expert in the field. Here’s what he had to say about this powerline technology.

‘“Utilities have been slow to grasp this,” says Chano Gomez, vice president of technology and strategic partnerships at DS2 (Design of Systems on Silicon), which supplies high-speed powerline chips to device makers such as NETGEAR. “They are waiting for the pioneers.”

Those pioneers smell a market. That’s because as service providers continue to invest in network upgrades that promise faster connections to the home, they are faced with the quagmire of how to distribute that fat pipe throughout the residence. “The problem providers have is they know how to bring broadband to the home, but they can’t distribute the signals inside,” says Gomez.’

How long it will take to solve that problem is anyone’s guess. In the world of technology, and especially in the field of Broadband Over Powerline the going is sometimes slow.