RWE PowerNet is a new Internet service via electricity cable, available in Germany by power suppliers RWE and Ascom. From July 1, costumers will be able to surf the Net paying less than they would for telephone or TV-cable connections.
RWE will charge costumers according to the amount of data received. The entry level price is of 49 marks (US$ 22.36) a month for a download maximum of 250 MB data. Speeds over electricity cables will be up to 30 times higher than ISDN.
If users are willing to pay 69 marks, they can transmit up to 1 billion bytes of data. The rival Deutsche Telekom's T-DSL package costs today 65 marks a month. Analysts say its success will depend on price competition and market share.
