Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Sony Corp. said Thursday that they have formed an alliance to promote home networking through electric power lines.

The makers of consumer electronics launched the CE-Powerline Communication Alliance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The companies hope to convince competitors and information technology companies to join them in developing interface technologies that will lead to interoperability between manufacturers' products.

Power line communication, or PLC, encompasses technologies and standards for using existing electric power lines in the home for high-definition video transmission and Internet telephony. Because of recent technology advances, PLC-based home networks could have authentication and encryption functions, while also offering a connection at every electrical outlet and plug-and-play features, the three companies said in a joint statement.

In related news, Panasonic, the North American unit of Matsushita, unveiled at CES a new chipset that would enable devices to receive high-definition video over a PLC network, Digital Connect, reported.