Old technology, New application
Internet from a plug?
By Alex Nowacki
Pattern Communications, the only firm in the country offering Internet access over the electric grid, is looking for a financial investor to help fund its plans for expansion. The company hopes to connect several thousand more customers by the end of the year and extend the service, currently offered only to residents of selected areas of Kraków, to the whole city.
According to Marcin Bodnar, Pattern Communications president, the company is looking at an investment to the tune of "several millions of dollars in the first round." This would be used to fund the firm's expansion in Kraków and, in time, to start offering the service in other cities across the country.
"Our ability to expand into other cities is limited by how quickly we can find investment and reach agreements with energy companies," Bodnar said. In March of last year, the company was aiming at connecting 3,000 to 5,000 customers in 2002 and 10,000 to 15,000 this year. Bodnar declined to disclose whether the company had met this target, but was optimistic about its future.
"We can offer a service that people want, and can do it quicker than our competition, as we are using wires that are already in place," he said. "It's a new technology, but once it takes off there are great opportunities for growth." He also pointed out that the wires are already in place, which means lower costs of installing the technology.
Marcin Duszyński, a finance broker specializing in the technology market, said the technology has already been tried in this country by several companies. Duszyński himself advised on one of the projects, but said that technical obstacles proved difficult to overcome.
"The local electricity grid is not in the same condition as in the western European countries, where this technology has been introduced," he said. "There was a lot of noise that disrupted data transmission." He went on to say, however, that the technology is only a step away from becoming a bankable asset.
Bodnar is certain that the obstacles can be overcome speedily, as the relatively new technology has been steadily improving over recent years. Once this is accomplished, the existing Internet providers could face a potent competitor. The service is potentially cheaper and faster than the alternatives and could "transform the domestic market," enthusiasts say. The service's detractors point, however, to the fact that the technology has not yet really taken off in any of the countries where it is on offer.
Pattern Communications has also run trials of the fixed-line telephone connection through the electric grid. Bodnar described them as "successful," and market experts have spoken with enthusiasm of its potential to extend the fixed-line telephony penetration in this country. The energy grid covers 99 percent of the territory, a much higher percentage than is the case with phone lines.
"The scale of this company ensures that offering this service is still in the relatively distant future," Bodnar explained. TPSA can sleep sound. For now.
