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Powerline Communications Industry Launches Global Association - The Universal Powerline Association

The launch of the Universal Powerline Association marks a major paradigm shift in the development and execution of industry standards. It brings together the major players in the Powerline Communication (PLC) arena to jointly work on industry standards and promote the worldwide deployment of interoperable and coexisting PLC networks for all markets and all applications.

The Universal Powerline Association (UPA) aligns industry leaders in the global PLC market to the purpose of ensuring "a level playing field" for the deployment of, both access and in-home, PLC technologies to the benefit of consumers worldwide. UPA has taken a quantum leap towards a networked, digital future based on the delivery of 200 Mbps power line product today, leaving behind standard making efforts based on differentiated markets and regional requirements and opting instead to ensure that all products and applications deployed on the same wire coexist or interoperate to provide a compelling power line experience for the consumer regardless of the product or application.

The UPA will catalyze the growth of PLC technology by quickly developing technical specifications (appropriate for all PLC stakeholders) as a basis for industry standardization. The Association will then submit to, support and enhance these specifications within the appropriate standard making bodies, including IEEE, ETSI, CENELEC and CISPR. It is the intention of all UPA members to deliver, to the market, products that comply initially with the "to be defined" specification and ultimately with the recognized open standards. The first technical specification to be addressed by the UPA focuses on the coexistence between Access and In-home PLC technologies, which further demonstrates the UPA's universal end to end approach.

"The Universal Powerline Association is the first truly global PLC organization to cover all markets and all PLC applications. A key aim is to promote the tremendous potential of PLC technologies to build a global communication society to government and industry leaders. The UPA is the only forum that can strengthen international cooperation in the emerging PLC market," said Eric Morel, Chairman of the Board of the UPA. "There is an increasing need for open standards and full coexistence for PLC technologies to achieve a strong position in the communication infrastructure. We have initially attracted the key PLC equipment manufacturing companies, utilities, consumer electronic equipment manufacturers, and chipset providers to create a powerful association that will define and seek to harmonize PLC standards globally. We are an open association that welcomes all interested companies to participate in shaping the future of PLC," Eric Morel continues, "and wish to see our membership base increase to include utilities, consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, telcos, system integrators, telecom product manufacturers and others."

The UPA's focus on time-to-market will benefit all players in the PLC value chain, by guaranteeing high performance and maximizing the usage of the spectrum.

The Universal Powerline Association invites all interested companies and organizations to join and contribute to the development of global PLC standards and regulations. Companies interested in receiving more information about UPA are invited to contact the UPA Chairman of the Board Eric Morel at eric.morel@upaplc.org

About the Universal Powerline Association

The Universal Powerline Association (UPA) is an International not-for-profit trade association working to harmonize global standards and regulations in the fast developing powerline communications market. The UPA aims to catalyze the growth of PLC technology by delivering UPA certified products that comply with the specified standards and regulations. All products and applications designed around UPA guidelines will coexist or interoperate. This can range from simple coexistence to full interoperability. Products and applications range from, the most performance demanding back haul optical switch to customer premise equipment that delivers broadband access power line to the myriad of home networking appliances; from power line to Ethernet gateways for triple-play and home-networking applications, to consumer electronics appliances including Media Centre PCs, Digital TV, MP3 players, networked set-top boxes and PVRs; indeed all types of audio or video appliances. UPA provides all PLC players the opportunity to respond to key customer expectations with open standards, based on interoperability, security and coexistence and supported by exclusive and independent certification, the only global guarantee of quality and confidence for high-speed power line technology available today. Members of the UPA include Ambient Corporation, Ascom, Corinex Communications, DS2, Itochu Corporation, Ilevo (Schneider Electric Powerline Communications), Sumitomo Electric Industries and TOYOCOM.

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