PLDT, Meralco to expand tests for broadband over power line

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MONDAY, 13 JUNE 2011 21:37 LENIE LECTURA / REPORTER

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) are proceeding to the next step in testing the broadband-over-power-lines project.

Meralco president and PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said the tests would be conducted in about 1,00 houses this year.

“The next step is to test further in a residential setting, in a residential subdivision,” Pangilinan said. “We may complete the tests within the year, hopefully.”

The tests conducted in multidweller units in Malabon yielded positive results but Pangilinan said more tests are needed to be conducted. 

The technology—which could be a means of providing wired broadband services in areas not currently reached by PLDT facilities or in areas where such facilities are already exhausted—will continue to be on a trial mode until all the tests are conducted.

Earlier, PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno said the broadband-over-power-lines project was undergoing test based on three technologies. “The first two look OK. We need it to be done on a bigger sampling area. We need to be conclusive,” he said.

Broadband Internet service has been delivered over Meralco’s power lines since August 2008 in Malabon. Officials anticipated earlier that the service trial would last only for three months before it is done on a wide-scale basis.  

“We are trying it in bigger areas for us to verify the veracity of the technology,” Nazareno added.

A team, which represents both PLDT and Meralco, was formed to collaborate and implement the synergies between the country’s largest phone firm and the power distributor. Nazareno acknowledged that not too many countries have launched the technology on a full-scale basis. “We have to prove that the technology works,” he said.

One of the biggest concerns was that the broadband-over-power-lines technology would interfere with local radio signals, as there is a tendency to interfere with local wireless transmission. “Broadband-over-power-lines has so far been a dud in the United States. A major reason for that has been the technology’s interference potential,” industry experts said.

Meralco had said the results of the pilot test would guide it in determining the scope and coverage of the project, which will drive the investment requirements.  This project is expected to make Internet more accessible in the country, where only 20 million out of the population of 90 million can go online.

Other synergies identified include prepaid electricity and cellular services, fiber-optic network, billing system, subscriber base, and other vital facilities that both companies can jointly own and operate.

Once prepaid electricity service becomes available, the electronic loading facilities of the PLDT group could be made available to Meralco and its prepaid customers to make the reloading of prepaid values more convenient and ubiquitous.

“The project is simultaneously being tested with the prepaid metering scheme, telemetric reading and other synergies earlier identified,” Nazareno said.