On November 9, 2009, the Brookings Institution held an event titled “Improving Broadband Innovation and Investment.” A transcript as well as a video of the event may be found at http://www.brookings.edu/events/2009/1109_broadband_innovation.aspx.
The event is described on the Brookings website as follows:
Broadband and wireless technologies are key elements of our nation’s economic, social and civic development. With the Federal Communications Commission’s stated goals of bringing broadband access to all Americans, it is crucial to determine how to be innovative when investing in broadband infrastructure. How will infrastructure development be funded? What is the proper mix of financial resources? How can we identify emerging technologies that will serve citizens and businesses?
The Participants were:
Moderator
Darrell M. West, Vice President and Director, Governance Studies
Featured Panelists
John Horrigan, Consumer Research Director, Omnibus Broadband Initiative
Federal Communications Commission
Robert Shapiro, Senior Policy Fellow
Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy
Thomas Z. Freedman, President, Freedman Consulting
Author of A Kindle in Every Backpack: A Proposal for eTextbooks in American Schools
During the Q & A session I asked why broadband over powerline (BPL) had dropped off the map even though it is a byproduct of the smart grid (that everybody including some of the panelists say we need and it would provide competition in the broadband market. Only Mr. Horrigan of the FCC attempted to answer and he emphasized that he could only repeat what he had heard, since it is not within his area of study or expertise. His answer was that he had heard it was a technical problem due to the current architecture of the electrical grid.
Let me emphasize that this is not meant to be an attack on Mr. Horrigan or anybody else on that particular panel. The Smart Grid concept covers a lot of territory and it is quite difficult to pin it down. People cannot be experts on every subject about which someone might question them. But I am rather puzzled about why BPL has failed to gain traction in the US.
The electric power industry was instrumental in wrestling control of the telecommunications industry from Ma Bell in the 1960s by providing their own internal communications system to their workers using microwave towers on electric rights-of-way. As I recall, they successfully argued before the regulators that electric service was essential and power utilities should not be at the mercy of the phone company to handle outages and power emergencies.
As best as I can understand, the smart grid will operate by broadband communications, likely using both wired and wireless technologies, to monitor the grid and provide smart metering to the home. So is the current grid architecture a huge barrier to the building of smart grid technology? Will the smart grid as envisioned not reach into homes and the meters not transmit information in real time through hard wiring or wireless?
Answers… answers… who has answers?
HEK