EU endorses OPERA 2 international standardization activities for Powerline Communications

Madrid, 18th July 2007 - The OPERA 2 Consortium today announced that the European Commission has endorsed Opera 2 activities to develop a new generation PLC access standard. In a recent Review Meeting that took place in Lisbon to evaluate the work undertaken to date by the 26-partner consortium to promote the adoption of low cost, high performance broadband access PLC, the European Commission stated that the work undertaken in Opera 2 is excellent. The reviewers allocated the highest possible score for EU funded projects and were particularly impressed with the progress achieved, in particular the solid contribution to international standardization activities, excellent field trials deployed to demonstrate scalability of OPERA PLC technology and the quality of the deliverables.

“We are very encouraged that the European Commission has recognized the valuable work undertaken to date by the members of the consortium. Within the framework of a very ambitious Project, the Commission particularly endorsed the results of the joint contribution with the UPA that has been submitted to the standardization work underway within the IEEE P1901 Working Group. The Commission also endorsed the results of three successful deployments in the field that tested the strength of the specification in different topologies in real world scenarios. We are excited at the prospect of continuing to work together with the UPA to achieve an open standard that fulfils the requirements of all the various Powerline markets, operators, retailers, and utilities,” stated Javier Arriola, Iberdrola S.A., OPERA Project Coordinator.

OPERA has jointly developed with the Universal Powerline Association (UPA) an Access Proposal that has been successfully submitted to the IEEE P1901 Group working on a Draft Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks. This group will develop an international, Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specification as the basis of an openly defined standard for high speed communication devices via power lines. The joint proposal is part of the joint work referred to in the MOU recently signed between both parties. The IEEE group received three further Access Proposals. OPERA and UPA will continue to work together and with third parties to evolve the Access specification until a final standard is agreed. Additionally, a Coexistence Proposal was also submitted to IEEE P1901 by UPA and CEPCA, which counted on the active participation and support from OPERA.

OPERA was represented at the recent IEEE P1901 meeting in Edinburgh to present the UPA-OPERA Access specification and to contribute to the debate towards developing a single open standard for Powerline communications technology.

_{About OPERA
OPERA stands for Open PLC Research Alliance and aims to develop a new generation PLC access standard to accelerate the adoption of low cost, high performance broadband access PLC. The second phase of the project (2007-2008) currently has 26 partners including electricity utilities, OEM manufacturers, technology providers, universities, engineering and consultancy companies and telecom operators. OPERA is co-financed by the European Union under the Sixth R&D Framework Program (FP6), and specifically addresses the theme "Broadband for all" which falls under the responsibility of the Information Society and Technologies Directorate General. www.ist-opera.org}

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