BackBURNET -- Ken Graham likes most things about his retirement home near the first green of the Delaware Springs Golf Course in this Hill Country town, but he's never been fond of the slow dial-up connection to the Internet.
So Graham, who also is the town's mayor pro tem, is happy that a broadband network is being built on the city power system in his neighborhood.
The network that serves the neighborhood of about 120 homes next to the golf course is expected to be completed before the end of December, making it the first in Texas to tap into a new technology called broadband over power line, or BPL.
"This will enhance our quality of life, very definitely," Graham says.
He is the trial customer helping to work out the bugs in the system before service becomes available to the neighborhood in several weeks. Already, Graham likes the faster speed when he reads newspapers or shops online, or when his grandson plays interactive video games.
"Most people that live in this subdivision are retired professionals," said Graham, who retired to Burnet in 1999 after a career in the telecommunications industry. "They have moved to the small town, but they don't want to give up the conveniences that they had."
The concept of delivering high-speed Internet access over electric lines has been talked about for nearly a decade, but it is just starting to become reality in a few places around the country.
It's based on the premise that copper is copper, whether it's carrying data
or electricity. The same copper lines that deliver electricity around a town
can carry a signal containing Internet data that goes all the way to the wall
socket in a home or business.
The electric current generally runs along the wire at a low frequency. It doesn't
interfere with the Internet data signal that operates at a much higher frequency.
Blanco entrepreneur Bob McClung, whose company provides Internet access to about
6,000 customers in rural communities west of Austin, wants to forge partnerships
with public and private electric utilities in small and mid-sized towns to deliver
low-cost broadband service for about $30 a month. By comparison, wireless and
satellite services available in small towns can cost twice as much and involve
a costly installation of equipment.
Even though the technology has taken a while to prove itself, McClung expects the acceptance will take off quickly.
"I want to be ready for when it explodes," says McClung, who has worked as a blues guitarist around Austin for more than two decades under the name Bobby Mack. "We think that will happen within a few years."
So far, only a few towns and utilities have started pilot projects to prove the new technology works. The city-owned electrical utility at Manassas, Va., launched its pilot project last fall. Cinergy Corp., an electric utility in Ohio, also has begun a pilot program. Other states, including Kentucky, are looking into the technology as a cost-effective way to bring broadband access to small towns.
Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell has publicly endorsed the new technology and spurred his agency to adopt rules for companies that operate BPL networks.
The technology is winning supporters because it's expected to be cost-effective for towns such as Burnet.
McClung and his partner, Mike Bates, say their company, Broadband Horizons, could help Burnet, population 5,000, install a broadband power line network for about $500,000, enabling every house to connect to the service by plugging a simple modem device into a wall socket.
His company is paying most of the cost of installing the Delaware Springs neighborhood network. Wiring the entire town would require a substantial equipment investment by the municipal electric utility.
Some industry analysts are skeptical about the new technology, noting the enormous early lead built up by the major cable television operators and phone companies in building their broadband networks.
"There are 31 million subscribers to broadband in the U.S.," said Bruce Leichtman, with Leichtman Research Group in Durham, N.H. "We are well beyond the early-adopter stage. The high-end of the market is pretty well plucked."
But McClung and Bates say the new technology represents the most affordable and effective way for many small communities to create high-speed Internet access for residents and businesses.
People who live and do business in towns such as Burnet have limited choices for getting high-speed Internet connections. Satellite Internet service is expensive. Wireless connections are expensive, and coverage can be limited by hills and even by trees that block the signal. In many small towns, the local phone and cable companies don't offer the service that their counterparts in bigger cities and suburbs promote so heavily.
The two men, who have pioneered several Internet access projects in small Texas towns, say they are trying to raise $5 million to $10 million from investors to grow faster. The company is in discussions with Lampasas, Flatonia, Weimar, Weatherford and other towns about creating BPL networks.
McClung is proposing that the cities pay for the equipment, while his company would deliver the Internet access. The company and the town's electric utility would share in the revenue. If the projects are successful, the towns should be able to pay for the equipment within a few years, McClung says.
Burnet hasn't agreed yet to build a citywide broadband network on its municipally owned electric grid. So Broadband Horizons is paying most of the estimated $50,000 cost of installing its equipment in the Delaware Springs neighborhood. The neighborhood will be connected to the Internet through a microwave link to McClung's Internet service business in Blanco, about 50 miles northeast.
Service is delivered by dividing towns into square "cells" that are about 3,000 feet on a side. All users in a particular cell would share the available bandwidth, much like cable modem users do when they get Internet access from their cable company.
With current technology, McClung says his company can offer broadband service that ranges in speed from 300 kilobytes to 1 megabit per second, depending on usage. Future generations of equipment, he says, will deliver far more bandwidth, ranging from 1 to 3 megabytes. By comparison, cable modem service in Austin generally delivers 2 to 3 megabytes of data every second.
Small-town officials see broadband access as a key to growth and long-term survival as they compete for new businesses, jobs and residents.
"Most businesses consider broadband access a basic need," said Robert Wood, city manager of Flatonia. A local Internet service provider introduced high-speed wireless Internet access to Flatonia in 2002, but that service is available only to customers who put up a sensitive antenna to receive the signal. "Broadband makes it possible for a wider range of people to live here."
Burnet's Graham views broadband service is one of assets that small towns need to have.
"The more of these little things you have in your tool kit, the better off you are," he said.
kladendorf@statesman.com; 445-3622