Powerline Internet in Germany

de.internet.com interviewed Klaus Wertel, a spokesman for Germany's EnBW Energy Baden-Württemberg AG, which is rolling out Internet-over-power-lines.

by Achim Sawall of internetnews.com [July 30, 2001]

Although the Internet was first delivered to a home plug on July 1, 2001, the technology remains expensive and the build out in Germany is slow. It is not expected that Powerline (as the technology is called) will develop into a mass medium.

de.internet.com spoke with Klaus Wertel, spokesman for EnBW Energy Baden-Württemberg AG.

de.internet.com: In the next few months, Powerline will enter into direct competition with DSL technology. It will have to compete against this technology and could be defeated by it, because the speed of Powerline is not guaranteed. Powerline is a so-called "shared medium," which means that all users connected to the same local network station share the maximum access speed, which is reduced considerably as the number of users increases.

Is this just teething troubles or is it a basic defect?

Wertel: In our three-year test phase, in which a total of 150 Powerline test individuals took part, we looked into this question ourselves. As it turned out, the user simultaneity factor is small and virtually no influence on transmission speed. The transmission rate of 2 MB/sec from the local network station is almost always available. We've noticed far more bottlenecks in broadband Internet.

Also, there is a maximum of 20 participants connected to each local network station equipped with a Powerline base station, and these participants have differing qualitative and temporal user habits.

de.internet.com: So far, all providers offer price models based on the amount of data used. Infrequent users don't understand this, and for frequent users, Powerline is considerably more expensive than alternative technologies.

Why are coverage areas limited and why is the rollout slow?

Wertel: The EnBW price model consists of three different rates to suit individual surfing habits. "Normal surfers" receive a transfer volume of 100 MB for DM 29 (US$13) per month; frequent surfers have a volume of 1,000 MB available to them for DM 69 (US$31) per month; and professional surfers can order 3,000 MB or 8,000 MB for DM 199 (US$89) and DM 459 (US$406) per month respectively.

The gradual expansion of Powerline is ultimately a capacity problem. At the same time, the regional expansion plans are dependent on the economic efficiency that will have to be proved through experience. EnBW is concentrating on densely populated areas and (according to current plans) the majority of people living in the EnBW network area should have access to Powerline in a few years.

—End