GigaOM

Texas, where oil and President Bush normally hog the headlines is becoming a new broadband battle ground. First there is a cat fight between the big monopolies over who is the baddest. And then there is all that blocking and tackling of municipal efforts. And now this. Apparently Texas Senate has recently introduced a new bill promoting broadband over powerline. State Senator Troy Fraser wrote SB 1748 , which supports development of broadband over power lines (BPL) technology. On Thursday, April 21, 2005 the bill came up for discussion in the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee. It was approved with a unanimous vote of 7-0. I think if you look at it, its got everything a politician wants. Politically correct “freedom to broadband” logic that gets headlines and keeps the Austin crowd happy, plus electricity companies, aka big energy consumers, makes energy companies happy. In all, its a crazy situation, since we all know BPL is as likely to be big as Kansas City Royals winning the 2005 World Series.