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FCC mulls an 'electricity Internet'In its ongoing quest to give a fair hearing to any and all things broadband-related, the Federal Communications Commission today turned its attention to energy efficiency. Specifically, the smart grid. "Smart grid and broadband are first cousins," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The idea, sensibly enough, is that the same high-speed, ubiquitous connectivity that gives us zippy file downloads and high-resolution streaming video could also link up household appliances and power meters, breathing a form of intelligent management and energy conservation into an electrical grid that proponents remind us would look very familiar to Thomas Edison. "It is an electricity Internet that we're talking about," Rep. Ed Markey said in introductory remarks at the field hearing the FCC held at M.I.T., the research jewel of Markey's district. "If you look at the energy sector and you look at the broadband sector you can basically determine whether a country in this century is going to be successful or not." Markey was one of the lawmakers responsible for writing into the economic stimulus package the provision requiring the FCC to deliver a national broadband plan to Congress next February. The charge was to account for issues relating to broadband deployment and adoption, as well as an examination of ways that high-speed connectivity could address the gamut of national priorities, such as education, health care, public safety and, yes, energy. The stimulus package also allocated $17 billion to smart gird technologies and other energy initiatives. 0 TrackBacksListed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: FCC mulls an 'electricity Internet'. TrackBack URL for this entry: https://swarm.jupitermedia.com/mt-tb.cgi/9343 3 CommentsLeave a comment |
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Sounds like yet another attempt by the FCC to ignore it's own charter, cozy up with the Power industry interests, and attempt to ram "Broadband over Power Lines" (BPL) through. For insight on the story, you only need to go to www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc
The worst case scenario will be for Power companies to successfully "persuade" the FCC and use this as an excuse to get into the "broadband" business, in spite of the significant radio spectrum and environment pollution. Where are all the environmental activists out there? They should be up in arms.
Out of band signaling, such as using existing broadband or other signaling is a much better way to maintain control of the electrical grid, in particular in the event of a catastrophic event or line breakage. Think about it.
No,this isn't about BPL. Power companies string wires. They need to string fiber, keep a little bandwidth for SmartGrid, and sell the rest. GE should partner with Cisco & Google to help them do this, and break the telco/cable monopolies. Then the US can join the rest of the developed world.
WTF 17 billion really? When Obamas advisors get their heads out of Roosevelt's ass and stop throwing billions at transportation infrastructure and move into the 21st century and build out the telecommunications infrastructure with FTTH so that personal telepresence is possible, then shovel ready jobs of laying fiber will be created and we can begin entry into Americas future as a technology superpower. Telelearning, teleworking, telemedicine, all become a reality when a big fat pipe is connected to every home, business, government office so that you leave your home office because you want to, not because you have to go sit in traffic for an hour... each way to sit in a cube to work on your computer.... You want shove ready? Build out 50M home offices. Convert all that commercial space that is going vacant into flex space for companies of the future... C-Level permanent offices with hot-desking or hotelling for the virtual office workers.
On the topic of the $17B to the rural electric companies to give "broadband" internet access to rural communities... PLEASE... 1Mbs speeds when WIMAX is capable of delivering 75Mbs without pulling one fiber one mile... just another give away under the guise of smartgrid enabling technology...