Cinergy Powers Up Web

Cinergy Powers Up Web

Jul 14 - Cincinnati Post

A surprising number of east-siders are plugging into a Cinergy Corp. venture that's offering Internet service over electric power lines.

The company projected it would sign up about 10 percent of its eligible electric customers each year as it rolled out the service across the city, but 15 percent have already signed up in Hyde Park and Mount Lookout since the commercial service was initiated a couple of months ago, Cinergy spokesman Steve Brash said.

It's now available to about 5,000 households, and Cinergy hopes to expand that base to 55,000 by the end of the year, Brash said.

Based on that 15 percent figure, some 750 homes are now using a service that has been provided in the past by two bitter rivals: Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner Cable in Ohio and the phone company and Insight Communications in Northern Kentucky.

Cinergy currently is installing the necessary equipment on its power lines in Delhi Township. It will move on to Oakley, Pleasant Ridge, Kennedy Heights and then Wyoming later this year.

Plans call for the service to be available throughout Cinergy's electric service area in southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky within three years.

While customers' response to the service has been better than expected, obtaining the necessary rights of way and installing equipment has taken a bit longer than anticipated, Brash said.

"Right now our primary issue is doing the installation on the electrical distribution system so we can expand the areas in which it's being offered," Brash said. "That has to be done neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street."

The Internet service is managed by Germantown, Md.-based Current Communications Group LLC, Cinergy's partner in the venture.

A subsidiary of Current Communications developed the technology. It allows users to connect to the Internet by plugging a small modem into any electrical outlet in their homes and then connecting computers to the Internet through those modems. No other in-house wiring is necessary.

Brash said the flexibility of the service seems to be attractive to customers.

Current Communications charges a monthly fee of between $29.95 and $39.95, depending on the connection speed.

The decision to offer the service commercially followed a year- long test in more than 100 homes in Hyde Park.

The trial produced high customer satisfaction and a strong interest in purchasing it as a commercial service, according to Cinergy officials.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .