Chip Helps Electric Outlet Go Broadband

AP News reported The common electric socket will serve as your home's connection to broadband with a new chip developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. - doing away with all the Ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless network device.

There are devices like this available now, but I think this one is faster.

Products are still being developed, but gadgets embedded with the chip from the Japanese manufacturer of Panasonic products can hook up to a broadband network by plugging into the common electrical outlet, company officials said Thursday. That's because the Osaka-based company has come up with technology to use electric wiring in the home to relay not just electricity but also data.

This will only work within your home, you will not be able to get internet this way, because it will not pass the transformer from the electric company's pole to your house.

The technology has been around for some time - including in the United States - but Matsushita's system is unique in that it delivers fast-speed broadband information at up to 170 megabits per second, which is faster than Ethernet. 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.

Yes this is definitely faster.

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.

Orders of magnitude faster than dialup

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

Once Internet 2 is available, this will really work, because the current internet has 32 bit addresses, which results in only 4 billion unique host interface addresses, while Net2 has addresses that are 128 bits wide, or 2 to the 128th power unique addresses, so every electric appliance in your house could have its own unique IP address.