Nor.Web left on the wayside of the superhighway

1999-09-08

A surprise announcement yesterday revealed Nortel Networks and United Utilities’ intentions to pull out of their Nor.Web joint venture. What does this mean? Well, nothing, probably.

The joint venture existed to develop and promote the Powerline technology, which was much-lauded when first announced a couple of years ago. Several deals were struck, for example with electricity companies in the UK, Germany and Sweden, and interest was gathering in the US. Everything was rosy, then, well, technology just passed Powerline by. ADSL was the straw that broke this camel’s back, but the writing was already on the wall when the ITU ratified the latest bunch of wireless communications standards several months ago. Bandwidth is on the increase by default, as technologies for mainstream bandwidth provision (for example through phone lines and across the ether) continue to develop. Such advances render the development of new technologies to provide additional bandwidth, exploiting niches such as powerlines, largely unnecessary.

Digital Powerline, in any case, was facing an uphill media battle. Fears surrounded the emissions created due to the very high voltages required to transmit the signal over the high tension wires. Although this was not the direct cause of the decision, which was made for cost reasons, a spokesman for United Utilities confirmed that this was a factor.

Nor.Web are currently in discussions with their existing customers as to the options for the future. It is possible that the technology finds a buyer, who may well be able to make money out of it. If this is not possible, the demise of Digital Powerline is unlikely to cause more than a ripple in the Internet pool.

(First published 8 September 1999)