If Telstra did not already have worries then it has now! Tasmanian Power Company Aurora Energy is testing Broadband Over Power Lines in the Hobart suburb of Tolmans Hill through their beleaguered TasTel company (telephony)
Aurora Energy has been one of many Australian Power companies trialling this service overseas.
In fact as far back as December 2004, I spoke to the marketing manager of Aurora about this but he requested I remain quiet.
How it works
Simple really, plug in an adapter into any power socket in your home or office and install the software and you are away, with speeds of up to 120 megabytes a second. Plus remember this, it is new technology, just as we started with modems at 14 kilobytes a second, with 5 years we could reach speeds of up to a Gigabytes a second.
The beauty of this technology is that any home or office with power (I mean how many in Australia do not have power.) can get it, so potentially every business and home in Australia can have access to the Internet.
What else?
Well VOIP (Voice over Internet) is definitely a winner with this technology. Add music, DVD’s, Movies, Pay TV and you have some very nervous companies out there.
Another nail in Telstra’s Coffin?
You betcha, this is why Telstra’s CEO is not happy, restrictions on regulations are going to make it tough for Telstra. This is because in years to come Australian’s will not be so dependant on Telstra’s infrastructure and therefore we will have more choices. More choices means more competition and finally means Telstra cannot just charge what it likes. For example line rental fees, local call costs, national calls costs etc. etc.
The Aurora trial is for nine months and if successful they will roll it out state-wide.
One thing Aurora will have to do is get its charges right, they are ridiculous at the moment and speeds are throttled from 256K to 4 Mbps, which is way below capacity. Two things that need changing are 1. Speeds and 2. Download Capacity if they are ever going to make it into mainstream!
To find out more go to http://www.tastel.com.au/bpl/
