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Abstract
In Feb 2005, the New Millennium Research Council, a Washington think tank, convened a national press conference to present a white paper asking the question, "Is 2005 the year of broadband-over-powerline (BPL)?" Joe Fergus, CEO of ComTek, which was deploying the US' first city-wide BPL network in Manassas, VA, said in that press conference, BPL is going to become a much bigger factor across the US during 2005. ComTek is already planning an upgrade in June of the Manassas network it began deploying in late 2003 and completed last year. ComTek's Fergus has said that the sweet spot for BPL providers lies in towns dense enough and populous enough to yield attractive economics of scale, but not so populous as to attract more than one or two broadband providers. But BPL proponents seemed to have learned their lesson. No matter how optimistic they might be, no one is willing to call 2006 the year of BPL.