Global - Utilities Broadband - Trends & Analyses
Several obstacles still continue to hinder the BPL industry. For several years the lack of an international standard has held the industry back and questions remain regarding the technical viability of BPL. On a positive note, there is progress in terms of standardisation - in late 2007 a joint IEEE standards proposal was submitted by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and Panasonic. However, with mainly low-risk-taking utilities involved in this market, they have become unwilling to take-on the telcos in the broadband market. Instead they are more interested to look at the use BPL for smart grid applications and Demand Side Management services. BPL also offers benefits in home networking due to its ubiquity. This report provides an analysis of the market, including an overview of the current and future market, a SWOT analysis, and discussion on latest developments and trends. Further information on Smart Grids can be found in separate reports. Note: Developments are also known as Utilities Broadband or Broadband Utilities.

 Table of Contents1. Synopsis 2. Introduction 3. BPL market overview 4. BPL review 4.1 Reviewing BPL as a broadband access technology 4.2 Reviewing BPL and Smart Grids 4.3 Looking towards 2015 5. BPL SWOT analysis 5.1 Strengths 5.2 Weaknesses 5.3 Opportunities 5.4 Threats 6. Selecting the right business model 7. Utilities as telcos 8. Full circle for utilities telecoms - Analysis 8.1 Smart Grids 8.2 BPL in developing countries 8.3 BPL - better than wireless 9. Other developments 9.1 Requirements for BPL standard 9.1.1 Difficulty in developing a global standard 9.1.2 OPERA to boost adoption of low cost BPL applications 10. Analysing telecoms and the electricity utilities 11. Related reports
Table 1 - BPL networking equipment unit sales worldwide - 2006 - 2007
Exhibit 1 - Potential BPL applications

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