DirecTV “plays” with Powerline Broadband

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Triple-play. Besides the obvious baseball reference, it’s also a marketing term for telecommunications. It refers to utilizing a single broadband line for TV, telephone, and Internet. Satellite services like DirecTV are typically shut out of such a “play”, unless they team up with a different vendor, as SBC previously did with Dish Network. Although it already has deals with some telecommunications vendors, DirecTV has decided to step into Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) with a partnership.

DIRECTV and Current Group announced that the satellite TV company’s customers will be able to get broadband over power line (BPL) Internet and VoIP service bundled with their TV packages.

Current Group’s subsidiary Current Communications offers BPL service in the Cincinnati area, with plans to expand to the Dallas-Fort Worth area soon. It is arguably the most influential BPL provider (which, given the small footprint of BPL deployments, is like saying it’s the most popular nerd at the prom) and, in 2005, received a $100 million investment from the likes of Google and Goldman Sachs. Source: Ars Technica

We Say: The deals DirecTV already has are with Qwest and AT&T, but it appears DirecTV is interested in BPL. In May, CEO Chase Carey said that his company wanted to test BPL in a “top 50 city” where at least half of the city would be covered. And now, with this deal, they’ve accomplished that.

Data packages are symmetrical (!) and start at $19.95 for 512Kbps and go to $49.95 for a static IP and 3Mbps.