April 2006

Did You Hear? HomePlug BPL specification is expected to be ratified in Q4 2006 Technology from Yitran Communications has been selected as the baseline technology for the HomePlug Command & Control specification Click here for more Aztech and devolo AG exhibit the industry’s first 200Mbps HomePlug AV products! Click here for more Here is what the industry is saying about HomePlug Technology! “It is a lot faster to plug a device into a wall than it is to lay a single cable. It creates an instant network at the flick of a mains switch. The real benefit will come to people who use mobile networks such as LAN (Local Area Network) party goers. These people have to build a multi-computer network before the party even starts. Bring a PLC device and abolish trailing cables.” – Digital-Lifestyles.info "Home Networking Without The Wires" Technical Papers Have you seen the new HomePlug AV Whitepaper yet? Click here Upcoming Events WinHEC 2006 May 23-25, 2006 Seattle, Washington Come visit the HomePlug Alliance exhibit! Interoperability & Coexistence HomePlug Powerline Alliance Announces Comprehensive, Global Compliance, Interoperability and Coexistence Strategy. Click here for more Please visit www.HomePlug.org for more information about the HomePlug Alliance.

President’s Letter Driving the Global Standards Needed for Ubiquity Matthew Theall, Intel Corporation President, HomePlug Powerline Alliance As the number of HomePlug products in the marketplace nears the 5 million mark, the past six months has added 22 new member companies who are supporting HomePlug technology around the world. It’s very rewarding to see such growth! As I travel internationally, I am pleased to find more and more service providers are deploying HomePlug-based products into the homes of their customers. As more vendors produce chips based on the open HomePlug AV specification (Arkados, Conexant, Intellon, and Spidcom will be among the first to market with silicon solutions), we expect the HomePlug revolution to continue worldwide. Back in February of 2005, we introduced a co-existence mechanism which allows any powerline communication technology to coexist with the millions of HomePlug products deployed globally. But our goal is interoperability: A to-the-home powerline network must work with an in-home network, and various devices within an in-home network must work together – regardless of the product’s manufacturer. Alliance members have been working diligently to promote the interoperability of powerline communications technologies through the IEEE and ETSI standards bodies. The “co-existence” of standards-based and proprietary technologies is a band-aid approach that endangers the consumer experience. No consumer would want to buy a product that prevents their existing products from working at their peak performance. This is why we’ve created a strict compliance and interoperability program that tests and awards products with the HomePlug-certified logo. The HomePlug-certified logo ensures that all your powerline products perform at their peak. We expect to see nearly 8 million HomePlug-certified products in the marketplace by the end of this year. As a consumer, if you don’t see the HomePlug-certified logo, don’t buy the product! Intel Developer’s Forum & CeBIT 2006 If you were at the Intel Developer’s Forum or CeBIT this year, you know the show floor was busy with companies showing a wide variety of HomePlug powerline products. At CeBIT, the HomePlug Alliance exhibit showed the new products coming to market that can send several HDTV streams around your house. HomePlug AV products were displayed by devolo AG and Aztech, while new HomePlug-certified products from GigaFast, Asoka, and a host of other HomePlug members filled the exhibit halls. At the Intel Developer’s Forum, HomePlug AV was demonstrated as part of a Digital Ecosystem that included a variety of technologies. HomePlug products are so quick and easy to set up that an entire AV and computing network was set up live on stage in under four minutes (3:51 to be exact). The HomePlug Alliance is always involved in one activity or another. If your company can benefit from getting involved in our marketing activities, please join the Marketing Working Group and help to spread the work about HomePlug-certified products and the benefits of powerline technology. Contact Rob Ranck for more information.