Nor.web pulls the plug on DPL lines

Plans for data-carrying electricity cables for high-speed net access have been scrapped.

Nortel and United Utilities have scrapped their plans to provide network access down their power lines. They say the technology worked, so why did they pull the plug?

In March 1998 the two companies created a joint venture called Nor.web which, using Digital Powerline technology (DPL), planned to exploit a system enabling electricity cables to carry data and provide high-speed internet access.

Nor.web had hoped that DPL would revolutionise internet access by transmitting data at over 1Mbps - around 10 times faster than ISDN.

Nor.web said that because the network is already in place, the costs for the user would be lower than with cable modems or wireless links.

However, after three years of development and widespread criticism, the companies have finally concluded that the investment cost was too great and the market had changed too much.

The arrival of asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL) was one of the final nails in DPL's coffin. Since DPL began trialling in Manchester last year, ADSL has come on in leaps and bounds and now looks likely to be the residential internet access method of choice. ADSL provides 'always on' internet access 40 times faster than standard dial-up, by enabling copper phone lines to act as broadband data connections.

In July BT announced its plans to offer ADSL to around 70 per cent of the UK population by 2002. Analysts are predicting a huge take-up of ADSL as it gives users a host of applications that require high bandwidth such as video on demand and online gaming. With competition like this, Nor.web was doomed.

"DPL was a way for United Utilities and Nortel to use their existing technology to break into the internet market," explained Nick Gibson, internet analyst at Durclacher. "They knew there would be considerable competition and have come to the conclusion that the economics just weren't right in what will become the highly competitive broadband market."

Nor.web insists that the decision to scrap the project was due to commercial issues, not DPL's technological problems. It denied that DPL could interfere with vital emergency service radio frequencies.

"It has nothing at all to do with it, the product worked. We proved there was no interference," said Jane London, marketing and communications manager at Nor.web. "We conducted various market trials with power utilities in Europe, so we have proved the technology works, but it was perceived by the parent companies as too niche to make money from."