Telstra today announced it is trialling a new device that will significantly increase the transmission limits of ADSL broadband from enabled exchanges.
The technology will initially be trialled at Mudgeeraba in Queensland and at Mt Eliza and in the Loddon-Mallee area of Victoria.
The three-month trial involves the use of electronic ‘booster' equipment, which is located near the end of the current transmission limit of 3-4 kilometres. The equipment can increase the signal by up to 20 kilometres from an ADSL-enabled telephone exchange.
Group managing director of Telstra Country Wide, Doug Campbell, says the trial – using the ‘Expands' device developed by Australian-based company Extel – will help the telco giant assess if it is technically and commercially feasible to use the device more widely.
If so, Telstra will have another option for the provision of broadband services to the 2% of customers who are connected to ADSL-enabled exchanges, but living beyond the current transmission limits.
Campbell adds the trial is one of a series of initiatives to improve the availability of ADSL from around 75% of household and business lines 12 months ago to 90% by the end of 2006.
"If successful, this electronic solution will be deployed where necessary to extend the reach of ADSL and be of great benefit to those living between approximately four and fourteen kilometers from an exchange, such as in some outer-metropolitan, regional and rural areas," he says.
Unveiling the fourth Telstra Country Wide advisory board report in Brisbane today, Campbell says the carrier has increased ADSL availability by 10% during the past year, to a point where it is now available to 85% of residential and business services.
With the assistance of the federal government's Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme (HiBIS), Telstra has upgraded more than 200 exchanges to be able to deliver ADSL since May 2004, with a further 240 approved for upgrade over the "next few months".
In addition to the ‘Expands' trial, Campbell says Telstra has unveiled a number of other initiatives aimed at increasing ADSL availability, including:
- A new policy of "transpositions', which means that where alternate copper paths are available in the network, these will be accessed to fill a customer's request for ADSL.
- A $28 million program to upgrade larger electronic systems (RIMS) that are incompatible with ADSL.
- A process to replace smaller electronic systems where ADSL is required, and where this can be done electronically.
- A field trial with 1,000 participants using extended ADSL transmission loss limits (increased from 56 decibels to 80 decibels), which may also result in increased coverage.
While Campbell and federal Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan acknowledge growing demand from business for a faster broadband service than ADSL can deliver (around 256 kbps), he says extending broadband services using fibre optic cable is not "economic yet".
Rolling pout a fibre optic cable network throughout Australia will require a "massive investment" that "no one in Australia or globally" has "stepped up" to undertake.
Telstra, he adds, is starting to provide fibre optic cable in "greenfield" sites but "retrofitting" to "brownfield" sites will not occur until some time into the future.