In an industry first, network equipment maker Comtrend Corp. has teamed up with chipmaker DS2 (News - Alert) to offer a new broadband over powerline (BPL) home networking adaptor that delivers broadband speeds of up to 400 Mbps.

This is record breaking speed for residential BPL, which up until now has typically delivered maximum speeds of up to around 200 Mbps.

The company’s new PowerGrid 904 is an Ethernet Powerline adaptor that plugs into any standard outlet and has Ethernet plugs allowing a homeowner to turn their power lines into a network. With this new adapter, Comtrend’s (News - Alert) carrier customers will be able to deliver next-generation triple-play services, including IPTV, without having to install new wiring in their customers’ homes.

“Reliable distribution of high speed data within a consumer’s home is the key to a successful deployment of triple play services,” said Andrew Morton, Comtrend’s General Manager, in a press release. “With the advancement of high speed technologies over copper or fiber for carrier deployment the home network is the final frontier to deliver such services as High Definition TV to any room in a home. The PowerGrid 904 meets our telco customers’ current and future needs with breakneck speeds up to 400Mbps over power lines, QoS, remote management and repeater function.”

BPL continues to be an attractive alternative to costly cabling in order to bring broadband services to residences, housing developments and small businesses, particularly those in remote or rural areas. The technology’s limitations in terms of speed and capacity are arguably made up for by its tremendous convenience: With BPL, all a homeowner or apartment dweller needs is a BPL modem which can be plugged into any wall outlet in order to get Internet access and other broadband services, such as VoIP. There’s no need to wire (or re-wire) the entire residence with cable or DSL lines in order to deliver the services, as they are delivered over the last mile via the electric lines which are already installed in the home. The technology is continuing to see growing adoption in both Europe and the U.S. (although in the U.S. it has seen much slower adoption).

The PowerGrid 904, which will start shipping early next year, enables a user to connect residential gateways, IP set top boxes (STBs) and computers to create a high speed home network. The adapter uses chipset technology from DS2 and is compliant with the Universal Powerline Alliance (UPA) standard.

For more information, visit www.comtrend.com and www.ds2.es.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and Assignment Editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.