Here's another front opening in the BPL battle. Dave Tuesday, August 10, 2004 Cinergy offers 'Net to co-ops Broadband technology marketed to utilities By Mike Boyer Enquirer staff writer Cinergy Corp. on Monday launched the second prong of its broadband-over-power-lines initiative by signing on a new company to market the technology to electric cooperatives. The company, ACcess Broadband LLC, launched with partner Current Communications Group LLC, is among the first to market the emerging technology to other utilities. Last spring, Cinergy joined with Germantown, Md.-based Current to become the first electric utility to offer high-speed Internet services to customers via its power lines, essentially turning every electric outlet into a Web connection. The technology avoids the need to rewire or recable an area for high-speed Internet - an expensive proposition in rural areas. Cinergy and Current estimate that municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives represent about 25 million potential customers. Cinergy has been marketing the service in Hyde Park and Mount Lookout. It won't disclose how many customers it has. But a spokesman said the service is available to about 8,000 customers and is seeing about a 15 percent "take rate,'' which would translate to about 1,200 customers for the service that starts at $29.95 a month. Cinergy spokesman Steve Brash said the partners plan to expand the offering to Pleasant Ridge and Delhi Township in the near future. Cinergy has said it hopes to have as many as 55,000 subscribers in the first year in Cincinnati. It plans to expand to Northern Kentucky and the rest of its Southwest Ohio service area in 2005. Cinergy has also invested $10 million in Current Communications as part of a new round of venture funding of more than $70 million, along with Current's other investors Liberty Associated Partners and EnerTech Capital LP. Cinergy's investment is part of the utility's nonregulated business and isn't funded by electric or gas rates. The growing national interest in broadband over power lines has triggered a flurry of concern among ham radio operators, who fear widespread deployment could generate extensive radio interference. Cinergy and Current say the ham operators' fears are unfounded. But the Ohio section of the American Radio Relay League has set up a local committee headed by Kirk Swallow of Colerain Township to monitor possible interference issues. Joe Phillips of Fairfield, section manager for the radio league, said the monitoring committee is just getting started and doesn't think the broadband program has enough of a footprint locally yet. He said the group hopes to provide engineering data Cinergy will find useful. Michael J. Pristas, formerly vice president, utility solutions business, for the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative in Herndon, Va., was named senior vice president, business development for ACcess and will manage its marketing to municipal and rural electric cooperatives. Initially, the partners said they will focus on the larger electric utilities with enough customer density and fiber-optic cable and other telecommunications infrastructure to make broadband feasible. Brash said Cinergy and Current also plan to offer Internet-based telephone service, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, over their system locally. He said they are testing the technology but aren't ready to launch it commercially. --- E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com <mailto:mboyer@enquirer.com>