Rogue streetlights tangle Internet data transmission

An ambitious project to provide rapid Internet access through electricity mains hit a snag when streetlights using the same power supply turned into rogue radio transmitters, the New Scientist magazine said this week. Canada's Northern Telecom Ltd (Nortel) and Britain's United Utilities Plc set up a joint venture company in March to market their Digital PowerLine technology worldwide. The technology allows high-speed Internet access and other data transfer such as multimedia, on-line banking and shopping and entertainment.

Trials of the systems in Manchester showed it was fast but surfers of the Internet discovered that the data they were downloading was being broadcast as high-frequency radio waves through the streetlamps. "If the current technology were to be widely used, experts fear that sections of the radio spectrum could be swamped, disrupting emergency communications, annoying amateur radio buffs and interfering with the BBC World Service," the magazine said.