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Australian BPL pilot to smash city broadband speeds

31.07.2006
Country Energy (CE) is expected to supply the first commercial Broadband over Power line service in the Australian state of New South Wales in the latter half of the year. This means Internet surfers in regional NSW will, for the first time, have access to speeds that smash what is available to most users in the city.

The NSW-based power distribution provider has been working for over four years on bringing the service to fruition. The CE Executive will meet in August to consider the business case of the service.

"If it is approved we will commence a commercial pilot in Q4," said Geoff Fietz, manager of telecommunications enterprises at Country Energy.

Despite still needing management approval, Fietz was quietly confident the commercial pilot will proceed.

The utility has already been trialling BPL since November 2004 in Queanbeyan, near Canberra. That trial started with a 45Mbps service from hardware supplier Mitsubishi, but has since gone on to incorporate Mitsubishi's latest 200Mbps chip, which is now the standard speed offered by BPL providers worldwide.

Although logically the pilot points to Queanbeyan, Fietz remained tight-lipped about which part of NSW will receive the commercial service. He did say the pilot will cover a section of a regional town, passing about 300 houses.