DirecTV plans VoIP offering

DirecTV has cut a deal with Current Group of Germantown, Md., to deliver a broadband/VoIP offering to direct broadcast satellite customers. Current provides broadband-over-powerline service to 1.8 million customers. BPL allows subscribers to connect to the Internet via any electrical outlet in the home. The technology is reported to provide symmetrical speeds of up to 10 Mbps. The service will launch in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area toward the end of the year.

DirecTV has 16.3 million subscribers in the United States. It will have access to Current's existing footprint and its future launch sites. The deal gives the DBS operator more leverage to compete with cable operations that provide broadband and voice services over proprietary infrastructures.

Current and DirecTV have a previously established corporate relationship with Dr. John Malone's Liberty Media. Current's investors include a Liberty entity, Duke Energy Corp., EarthLink, Google, Hearst Corp., GE, EnerTech Capital and Goldman Sachs & Co.

Liberty wrested control of DirecTV last December when Malone traded his 16.3 percent stake in News Corp. for it. News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch was only too glad to take it and be rid of Malone, aka the "Darth Vader" of business deals. That swap put Malone back into the television distribution business after an 8-year hiatus following his sale of TCI to the old AT&T. No one in the business world has bested this savvy doctor. A WiMAX-based quad-play is not far behind, and probably a strategic alliance with EchoStar so complex that regulators won't have a legal leg to block it.

For more:
- Writing for Light Reading's Digital Cable News, Jeff Baumgartner provides extensive background here
- The official announcement from Current is here