DirecTV has signed a wholesale distribution agreement with Current Group that will allow DirecTV to resell data and VoIP services using the latter company’s broadband over power line (BPL) network.

DirecTV will start offering bundles of video with Current’s BPL broadband and VoIP starting at the end of this year or in early 2008. The first market will be Dallas/Ft. Worth, where Current Group is in the process of helping TXU Electric Delivery prepare its powerline network to offer data services. TXU is one of Current Group’s investors.

Current Group calculates that DirecTV eventually – “over the next several years” – will have access to about 1.8 million customers in Texas.

Neither Current nor DirecTV offered estimates of the broadband speeds that will be available. Current says only that it offers speeds up to 75 times faster than dial-up.

BPL has an extremely limited footprint. Current, partnered with Duke Energy (formerly known as Cinergy), has one of the largest commercial deployments of BPL in Cincinnati, Ohio. Current also says it has ongoing trials with Southern California Edison (SCE), Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) near its Maryland headquarters, and Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) in Honolulu, among others. None of these installations are currently involved in the DirecTV deal.