Passive optical network backhaul for powerline communications

A method for passive optical network/power line communications (“PON/PLC”) comprising:

• coupling a PON/PLC HeadEnd to a conventional, electrical power conveying media and an optical network termination (“ONT”) of a passive optical network (“PON”);
• receiving at the HeadEnd high speed, broadband data communications services on optical signal carriers of the PON, wherein the broadband services correspond to a predetermined data bandwidth;
• generating at the HeadEnd digitally encoded data modulated PLC signals having a bandwidth substantially equal to the predetermined bandwidth;
• transmitting the PLC signals over the conventional electrical power conveying media;
• and
• receiving the PLC signals at a PLC residential gateway (“RG”) coupled to low voltage (“LV”) power lines of a LV power line network existing within an end user facility, wherein the RG processes the received PLC signals to provide for access to the broadband services distributed on the optical signal carriers conveyed on the PON.