The Network You’ve Got

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. The Matsushita Electric Company (Panasonic) is working on a technology that wil leverage existing electrical wiring for Internet. This isn’t new in conceptual terms - the power companies have been doing it for decades - but Matsushita now has a chip it can embed in its consumer devices to enable the process for anything plugged in to the wall socket.

The advantage is that the lowly electric socket is everywhere. Right now, a broadband outlet still isn’t usually available in every room, even in homes that have broadband connections.

In the future home envisioned by Matsushita, people will be able to download and watch high-definition movies in any room of the house that has an outlet.

Attach a special device made by Matsushita into a socket and all you have to do is plug your TV or other gadgets into a socket for instant connection to broadband, which allows for faster transmission of online information than dial-up telephone connections.

Matsushita hopes to eventually sell refrigerators, TVs and other products with the chip already installed.

A network-connected refrigerator may allow users to connect from a mobile phone or laptop to check whether you’re low on eggs, for example. Or you may want to turn gadgets off or on, such as your washing machine or air-conditioner, from outside the home.

Matsushita doesn’t tell us how the electrical system gets connected to the Internet. This will likely happen through existing broadband for now via an interface with your adsl or cable connection. But watch for the power companies to make a move into the brodband Internet space either alone or in conjunction with existing providers.

With potential speeds of 175MB/sec for the new power grid Internet, all the copper and fibre ISPs are running right now could be obsolete - decades ago.