Broadband Over Power Lines

While the technology of Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL) definitely works, the anticipated pilot of this program has taken longer than we had anticipated and for this we apologize. However, the good news is the "2nd generation" of equipment for the BPL has been installed and approximately 100 SCI REMC members are still piloting this high speed Internet program.

During November, we plan to install the new equipment on the 2nd circuit of the Martinsville substation. This will give us a larger scale test of the new equipment. If this deployment is succesful, we plan to deploy BPL to another substation by early 2008.

Based on our existing pilot and the capabilities of the new equipment, we plan to offer various levels of service with the basic package being 256 kbps for $29.95 per month and higher speeds for an additional cost.

Once the Board of Directors review the success of the pilot tests, evaluate the quality of service and review the financial implications, a decision to deploy to our entire member base will be made. At that time a schedule for deployment will be established and communicated to our members. We expect this decision to be made by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Your Board of Directors and management want to assure our members we are working diligently to make BPL a reality for all SCI members who want it.

Our intent is to make sure that the project is done properly and SCI can provide the quality of service our members expect and deserve. We will continue to provide updates on the BPL project on our website and in our Light Reading Newsletter.

We are very excited about this new technology and the benefits it can bring to our cooperative members. We appreciate your patience and support while we conduct the necessary tests to assure we can successfully provide this valuable and needed service to all SCI members, and ask that you share in the excitement of entering this new frontier together.

Kevin Sump
CEO

• To view a log file, showing the progress being made on our pilot, click here - Log File
• To view more details about the pilot and the broadband service being offered, click here - BPL Pilot

If you have any BPL questions, please address them to Greg McKelfresh