News

HomePlug Powerline Alliance Announces New Board Members; Comcast, DS2 and EarthLink Join HomePlug's Board of Directors (20/1/2004)

HomePlug Powerline Alliance, Inc., today announced three new board member companies who will join in the alliance's charter of providing a forum for the creation of specifications for home powerline networking products and services. Comcast, DS2 and EarthLink are joining HomePlug at a time of growth and innovation.

The addition of Comcast, DS2 and EarthLink to HomePlug's Board of Directors, underlines the value of HomePlug technology to service providers. HomePlug's whole-house coverage, Quality-of-Service (QoS), and built-in security offers service providers an in-home platform for the delivery of a wide variety of new services directly to consumers.

"The market opportunity for HomePlug certified products is continuing to expand beyond the home PC network and into video, audio, online gaming and security products," said Peter Kempf, President of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and Vice President of Marketing for Conexant Systems. "Our new board members will provide vital support and knowledge as HomePlug advances in the multimedia arena with HomePlug AV, which will be the most robust and cost effective solution for distributing high quality multimedia content."

"Comcast is excited about the potential for HomePlug to enhance our data, video and telephony services with new installation options and better features for the consumer," said Mark Francisco, Director, Home Services Engineering at Comcast. "Building on our positive experience with HomePlug 1.0 for data networking applications, we look forward to the improved performance of HomePlug AV for higher-bandwidth content distribution."

"DS2 is proud to be a part of the HomePlug Alliance and to contribute its experience, know-how and building-blocks to benefit the HomePlug AV process," said Jorge Blasco, President and CEO of DS2. "Powerline Networking and Powerline Access (BPL) have already demonstrated their strength in the marketplace. Powerline Access is a very promising market. We are delighted to see that the HomePlug Alliance is focused on a synergistic development of both market segments."

"Joining the HomePlug Powerline Alliance is an exciting opportunity for EarthLink to work with other leading companies to develop powerline communications for home networking, audio visual distribution and broadband access services," said Stephen Howe, Vice President of Corporate Strategy at EarthLink. "Of critical importance to EarthLink is the successful development of the HomePlug access standard that we believe can significantly enhance the user's broadband experience."

The Board of Directors is comprised of industry leading companies including Cogency Semiconductor, Comcast, Conexant, DS2, EarthLink, Enikia, Intellon, Panasonic, RadioShack and Sharp. Working together, representatives from these companies continue to lead the development of new HomePlug 1.0 certified products and guide the completion of the HomePlug AV technology development process.

www.homeplug.org