The need for Home Power: it is just around the corner

Globally, the telecommunications industry is expanding at a remarkable rate. Opportunities to provide service to over 75% of the world´s population who still do not have access to telephones are constantly being evaluated for feasibility. New technologies are rapidly emerging and displacing the existing infrastructure. Monopolies are crumbling and lucrative mergers are being formed between existing and emerging competitors. The definitions of local and long distance may fundamentally change as providers reach beyond existing boundaries. Mergers or cooperative agreements may surface to consolidate billing and operating systems, offering lower cost bundled services to consumers using the one-stop shopping concept. This paper explores some of these emerging technologies and discusses their shortcomings. The conclusion reached independent of which technology emerges as the consumer´s communications media of choice, the probability is that it will still require some form of power generation in the home; thus the name Home Power. This power supply will need to be reliable, predictable, highly available, with long term battery back-up, in order to provide equivalency to existing services. Even the developing countries will require long term back-up for their power systems, not necessarily to provide equivalent services, but to eliminate the dependence on the local unreliable power grid