Though it may seem a step in the wrong direction, it has been possible for some years now to transmit data over power lines. Case in point; South American cities power theft runs rampant with people will commonly wire into live electrical feeds to tap some of their neighbors power to juice the entire neighborhood. The power companies down there have been using devices that allow for data to be transmitted through the power grid to their monitoring station where they can determine if there is an illegal hook-up.

With some basis upon that technology, DirectTV has announced that they will begin to offer service bundles that include braoband-over-power lines sometime this year. DirecTV had hinted at this back in spring, and has plans to roll out the service starting with their Dallas and Fort Wroth Texas BPL network by years end.

This is another attempt by the satellite company to gain some added market share in the realm of high-speed Internet access. It will allow them to further compete with the cable and telecoms providers who already offer package deals bundled with both TV and Net access.

The development also follows DirecTV's failure to secure any of its own spectrum in the FCC's auction this year. They had hoped by acquiring some extra air bandwidth that they could introduce their WiMax high-speed Internet service, a type of high range wireless net access.