Michael Bates, V.P., Sales and Marketing, Broadband Horizons

One of the oldest (several months), and already one of the best-known, deployments of broadband over power line (BPL) is the one in three small towns in Texas engineered by a company called Broadband Horizons.

Michael Bates, V.P. for Sales and Marketing at Broadband Horizons, spoke this morning with Broadband over Power Line World about his company, about BPL, and about Broadband Horizon's deployment of BPL in Blanco, Burnet, and Weimar, Texas.

During that interview, Mr. Bates discusses how BPL works, technically; what needs to be added (and how) to power lines to enable them to carry Internet signals; the different business models according to which Broadband Horizons can work with a municipality or power line company (be it investor-owned, publicly-owned, or a cooperative) to deploy and operate BPL on their system; how BPL is backhauled to the Internet; how BPL is, in a sense, a larger version of the HomePlug standard that distributes Internet connectivity within a commercial or residential premises; that Broadband Horizons is a privately-held, not publicly-traded company (at least so far); that Broadband Horizons will be deploying BPL in Kentucky next; the impact that BPL can have on the quality of rural life, telecommuting, economic development; higher education, and farming operations; and the possibility that the widespread deployment of Internet connectivity through power lines will enable a "re-migration" that reverses the past movement of populations from the country to the city with a new movement of masses of people from cities to (at present) more-sparsely populated areas.

You can hear the first part of this discussion with Broadband Horizon's V.P. Michael Bates by clicking here.

You can hear the second part of this discussion with Broadband Horizon's V.P. Michael Bates by clicking here.

Learn more about BPL generally and Broadband Horizons in particular by visiting the Broadband Horizons web site.