Shocking times for Aussie broadband over powerline
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but Australian utilities' recent abandonment of broadband over powerline (BPL) technology has all but sealed the fate of a technology that was once hoped to bring high-speed data to every corner of Australia.
Enthusiasm for BPL grew out of the telecommunications industry slump of 2003, as technology providers looked for new ways of building revenue and realised that electricity operators already had access to wires running into every home and business premise in their coverage areas. Why not, they reasoned, use those wires to bring broadband into areas where thinner, older copper local loop wiring just wasn't up to the task of carrying ADSL reliably?
