Proponents say the system can offer lower prices and higher speed than anything else on the market.
The bill also approves frequencies to be used when television broadcasting is fully digital in 2010, and standard radio service becomes digital in 2015. Called PowerNet, the service promises a maximum data transmission rate up to 30 times faster than ISDN digital phone lines, at a price better than even the fastest broadband cable deals currently offered, RWE said. The technology works with adapters that change data signals into frequencies that electrical networks can carry. Modems at the electrical socket then separate the data from the electricity. Although RWE's plans have generated some excitement in the German market, electronics giant Siemens announced earlier this month it would abandon a similar project for the meantime because it does not see the potential to win a mass market in the foreseeable future.