The ST8500 is a power-line communication modem. It is working in a low-frequency band below 500kHz and targeted to CENELEC EN50065, FCC and ARIB compliant applications, which do not require WiFi.
On the ST Electronics website the is a news article where a new chip or update to the ST8500 has both a WIFI capability and PLC capability. This option might be of interest to us because we support both PLC and WIFI on our products. If we can have a single chip solution this could be a win.