Calif. clear way for BPL

"Broadband advocates, upset with the slow spread of DSL and cable, have long looked at the state's transmission grid as the "third rail" of bringing the World Wide Web into people's homes and offices. Now the California Public Utilities Commission, in a ruling Sept. 8, has cleared most regulatory roadblocks to pilot programs for BPL -- broadband over power lines -- to test the feasibility of offering Internet connections via an electrical outlet and through the state's transmission grid."