Well it’s official, the FCC has opened to door for broadband over power lines as long as FCC guidelines are followed. This is truly awesome since this could mean access to broadband Internet for those that live it more rural areas outside of more traditional broadband sources.

The Federal Communications Commission today made rulings which regulate (or deregulates, as the case may be) two broadband technologies that are still on the horizon for most residents of the US. In one vote, the FCC has opened the door to deployment of broadband over power lines (BPL), adopting a set of rules that will allow power utilities to offer broadband service to their customers. BPL has been piloted in a couple of locations in the US by Earthlink as well as in Europe, and the FCC decision clears the way for utilities to begin offering broadband service. BPL should be cost-competitive with current consumer-level DSL offerings — in one recent trial, Earthlink charged US$19.95 for the first three months of BPL service and US$39.95 afterwards.

The other decision made by the FCC involved deregulating new optical networks, including fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP). Some local incumbent phone companies have been aggressively upgrading old copper cable to optical, hoping to use the new infrastructure to offer services such as digital TV and broadband. Verizon is currently piloting its new fast DSL services with speeds of up to 30Mbps down and 5Mbps up to customers in Texas, California, and Florida while other telcos have announced plans to begin deploying FTTP over the next couple of years.