Internet access from an electrical socket was launched on July 1 in Germany. With its current price structure and the speed of its infrastructure expansion, however, it is not expected that Powerline (as the technology is called) will develop into a mass medium.

Shortcomings in regards to both the technology and the price could hinder quick success. de.internet.com spoke with Klaus Wertel, spokesman for the EnBW Energy Baden-Wrttemberg AG.

de.internet.com: In the next few months, Powerline will enter into direct competition with DSL technology. It will have to compete against this technology and could be defeated by it, because the speed of Powerline is not guaranteed. Powerline is a so-called "shared medium," which means that all users connected to the same local network station share the maximum access speed, which is reduced considerably as the number of users increases. Is this just teething troubles or a basic defect?

Wertel: In our three-year test phase, in which a total of 150 Powerline test individuals took part, we looked into this question ourselves. As it turned out, the user simultaneity factor is negligibly small and has as good as no influence on transmission speed. The transmission rate of 2 MB/sec from the local network station is practically always available. We've noticed far more bottlenecks in broadband Internet. Besides that, there is a maximum of 20 participants connected to each local network station equipped with a Powerline base station, and these participants have differing qualitative and temporal user habits.