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Technology

IBM Venturing Into Broadband Over Power Lines (IBM)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

Ibm_logo_nycIBM (NYSE: IBM) is going into a new initiative, which is actually an old initiative which had been thought of as dead on arrival: Broadband Over Power Lines.  Big Blue is partnering with International Broadband Electric Communications, Inc.

The companies have signed a $9.6 million agreement to have IBM installBroadband over Power Line (BPL) networks at electric cooperativesthroughout the eastern US.  Its partner will focus on providingbroadband services to underserved residents in rural America.

This initiative has been tested and tested, and theorized andtheorized.  But it seems that IBM will be the first of the majorplayers to formally launch an effort beyond a test.  It is a smallevent for IBM itself, but could be yet another form of broadband accessfor the people who live in rural America and in small remotecommunities.

This is still exclusionary to some though.  They won’t be able to connect the Amish to the world wide web.

Jon C. Ogg
November 12, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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