BPL, or broadband over power lines just won't seem to die, with California now joining in on testing it. The hopes are of course to use existing power lines to transmit large amounts of data and compete with traditional data carriers.

The thing I'm not getting though is that there was loads of "dark fiber" around that was installed back during the boom and never lit, and other power companies like Duke Energy (fka Duke Power) have been stringing fiber up on electric lines for years. DukeNet started in 1994 and has over 3,000 miles of fiber in NC, SC, and GA.

Could this push to get BPL working be due to GOOG buying up dark fiber? hmm..