The HomePlug Powerline Alliance today announced that HomePlug and Panasonic have merged their technical submissions to the IEEE P1901 Work Group for Broadband over Powerline (BPL) to submit a joint proposal.

The merged submission offers a single MAC to support both the HD-PLC and HomePlug AV PHYs. As a result, future products based on the merged P1901 proposal can be fully interoperable with existing HomePlug AV and Panasonic HD-PLC products.

The IEEE P1901 group is developing a communications standard for high-speed powerline devices. The standard will be usable by all classes of high-speed BPL products, including networking devices for the first-mile/last-mile connection to broadband services and consumer products providing in-home networking and multimedia distribution. The IEEE P1901 Work Group is expected to approve a proposal later this year.

Panasonic Communications yesterday entered the Skype phone market with a standalone Wi-Fi phone kit aimed at business travelers.

The Panasonic KX-WP1050 Wi-Fi phone for use with Skype is said to be one in a series of planned Skype Certified products.