We’ve heard this before… Rural customers to get high speed internet through Broadband Over Power Line technology.  So when it was announced today that mammoth IBM would be joining with International Broadband Electric Communications Incorporated, to bring this technology to those in rural areas who still don’t have cable or DSL, it was met with some skepticism.

Possibly signing the blue-chip name of IBM will bring some fruition to those needed markets this time around.  Improved technology and low-interest federal loans will help fuel the idea.

“The technology is important but what’s really important is this is a seminal moment in the delivery of broadband services to rural customers,” said Bill Moroney, the head of the Utilities Telecom Council, an industry trade group. “Here’s a beginning and really a great leap forward.”

Statistics from the FCC for 2006, the most recent year available, indicate that less than 5000 households in the United States are currently accessing the Internet through BPL technology.  IBM’s $9.6 million deal with IBEC should help those numbers.  According to IBEC Chief executive Scott Lee, the project should take around two years to complete with a budget of $70 million.  The basic service will start around $29.95 per month, with approximately 340,000 homes in Alabama, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin getting the goods.