p2pnet.net News:- Nethercomm, a US husband-and-wife start-up, believes it’s figured out how to turn gas lines into Net delivery systems.

With their Broadband in Gas project, Ann and Patrick Nunally say they want to become the last-mile providers of broadband in the US and elsewhere.

Nethercomm says it can deliver 40-100Mbps through gas pipes to PCs for roughly the same price as a DSL install, or a tenth the install price of a fiber line, says Karl Bode in Broadband Reports, going on:

“To support their own marketing, Nethercomm cuddled up to a research report from ‘West Technology Research Solutions’ (WTRS), which claimed that BIG service ‘may soon be provided to’ 70% of the US population. Of course that’s the number of potential customers served by gas lines, not any solid prediction of technology deployment.

A year ago Nethercomm promoted BIG to 40+ utilities in San Diego but, “As far as we’ve heard, none of those companies has seriously pursued the technology,” says Bode, adding:

“Many of those same companies are passing on broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, unconvinced of the ROI of getting into the residential broadband business.

“But it still makes a good story; however USAToday skips much of the exposition while profiling the technology this morning. Nethercomm CEO Patrick Nunally tells the paper the potential exists for the technology to provide 6 gigabits per second worth of bandwidth per household.”

Also See:
Broadband Reports – Broadband in Gas Lines, September 11, 2006