IBM has been tapped by International Broadband Electric Communications to bring broadband access to rural areas. In a deal worth nearly $10 million, Big Blue will team up with IBEC to install Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) networks at electric cooperatives throughout the Eastern United States, the companies said Wednesday. Electric co-ops are private, independent electric utilities owned by the members they serve.
The deal between IBM and IBEC is first of its kind and comes after IBEC received a $49.2 million loan from the Department of Agriculture on top of $19.2 million it received in 2005.
“Americans in rural areas of the country trail their urban and suburban counterparts in broadband availability,” said Scott Lee, IBEC chief executive. “This capability will play a critical role in rural health, education and economic development, while closing the digital divide that exists between well-served and underserved America.”
By tapping IBM, IBEC will be able to work with the more than 900 electric co-ops in the U.S. that provide 45 percent of the electric grid and cover 75 percent of the nation’s geography.
These co-ops power Alaskan villages and dairy farms in Vermont and the suburbs in between and provide service to 40 million Americans, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), which has representatives from 47 states that have an electric distribution cooperative.
Rural consumers will get high-speed access to the Internet instead of dial-up service, which is significant to businesses, schools and hospitals and levels the playing field with their urban and suburban counterparts, according to IBM.
IBEC will provide the BPL equipment for the rollout and serve as the Internet service provider for rural residents. Before taking this step, IBEC needed to scale up to handle installations at more than one cooperative at a time and turned to IBM….