AT&T and Pacific Gas and Electric on Wednesday announced a trial run of broadband sent over power lines, an emerging alternative to cable and DSL for delivering high-speed Internet access. As part of the test, the two companies tapped about 100 residents in Menlo Park, Calif., where the power grid is used to feed 13 megabits per second of Internet access to Wi-Fi repeaters on street lampposts. Homes then receive up to 3mbps of wireless Net access. Participants were given Wi-Fi phones from Cisco Systems so that they can make phone calls over the broadband connection. Read More