CeBIT 2010: HomePlug Continues its Market Leadership

The fairgrounds at the Deutsche Messe in Hannover, Germany are quieter now, but the buzz about the HomePlug Pavilion at CeBIT 2010 is still on the lips of those who made the trip.

It's fitting that Europe, the largest market for HomePlug-certified products, was also hosting one of the largest displays the HomePlug alliance has ever built -- a clear indication of the growing business of powerline communications and HomePlug's dominance of the market.

It was at CeBIT 2010 that breaking news began to circulate that IEEE 1901, the global powerline standard that is interoperable with HomePlug AV technology, was on its way to a Sponsor Ballot, the final stage in the IEEE's process for establishing a standard.

With the HomePlug alliance celebrating its 10th anniversary in April 2010, it's amazing to map the progress of a technology that many believed was an impossible dream just ten years ago. Some say if powerline communications technology were perfected earlier, that many other wired technologies simply wouldn't be needed. With physical data rates nearly doubling with each revision, HomePlug powerline technology is now mentioned in the same breath as WiFi and Ethernet.

At CeBIT 2010, the HomePlug alliance built an impressively sized pavilion and invited their members to participate. A prominent location in Hall 13 of the mile-square Duetsche Messe  campus spawned a planning process taking nearly a year. By the time the doors to CeBIT opened, the HomePlug Pavilion reflected its market position; it was an imposing presence replete with meeting rooms, sitting areas, a place for press and media to view presentations and take interviews -- even the "HomePlug Bar" to entertain visitors.

In another example of the value that HomePlug products offer service providers, T-Home, the division of Deutshe Telekom focused on Broadband and Fixed Networks, introduced its first HomePlug AV products called Speedport Powerline 100. Over 30 service providers globally use HomePlug products in their rollout of IPTV, whole-house internet sharing, and a host of other services.   

Displaying the latest solutions and the newest HomePlug-certified products to hit store shelves were HomePlug member companies Atheros, GigaFast, Gigle Networks, LEA, and SPiDCOM Technologies. devolo AG -- the world's market-leading manufacturer of HomePlug products, rounded out the pavilion with a display of their best-selling HomePlug dLAN products for both residential and business use.

Among the news that always accompanies an event of CeBIT's magnitude were announcements and demonstrations of new ultra high-speed products from Netgear and devolo AG. The new adapters are interoperable with both HomePlug AV technology, and the upcoming IEEE P1901 standard. 

Germany's devolo AG also introduced adapters that provide a simple way to combine wireless and powerline networks, solutions for directly connecting USB devices, and the first set-top box for digital satellite television that uses the power lines to connect between the satellite antenna and the set-top box.

With all the various applications of HomePlug technology shown at CeBIT, the news that HomePlug AV technology is destined to become a worldwide standard through the IEEE, and the wide variety of companies and products that support HomePlug technology, it's no wonder that the technology world is continuing to line up behind HomePlug!