extelcomms.com/news_events/press_releases.php
Broadband in sight for country clients
Australian
Financial Review – David Crowe
June
17, 2005
A technical breakthrough in
high-speed internet technology will enable Telstra to introduce commercial
broadband to thousands of consumers now blocked from receiving services.
Telstra is to launch new
services in September that will dramatically increase the reach of its
broadband services and help defuse complaints over services in rural and
regional Australia.
The company said yesterday
the commercial service would offer asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)
services to customers located up to 20 kilometres from a phone exchange.
That represents a significant
extension on the physical limits of current ADSL services, which are usually
available only within five kilometres of an exchange.
The group managing director
of Telstra Country Wide, Doug Campbell, said yesterday many of the likely
customers were located just outside regional centres.
"We're talking of many
thousands, particularly farming communities that are 10 or 20kilometres away
from an exchange. With this booster we can get the ADSL out there."
Telstra expects to have the improved
services available in up to 200 telephone exchanges by the end of the year
after testing technology that can increase the distance reached by ADSL.
The technology, developed by
Australian company Extel Communications, helps solve one of the main performance
limitations of ADSL, which degrades over long distances.
Using existing technology,
most consumers located more than four kilometres from a telephone exchange
cannot receive a commercial ADSL service. The Extel technology stretches that
distance to as much as 20kilometres by installing "boosters" in the
exchanges.
Mr Campbell said it would
cost Telstra a "nominal amount" to fit the Extel equipment to each
phone line required. (The Extel booster must be fitted to individual phone
lines, rather than being used to upgrade all ADSL lines at the exchange).
"We're starting to roll
out in September and I would think that we'll have maybe 150 or 200 exchanges
equipped with individual services off those exchanges" by the end of the
year, he said.
The roll-out would continue
to other exchanges over the next one or two years.
But Mr Campbell said the
services would only offer existing ADSL speeds and would not be capable of much
faster ADSL 2+ performance.
"We have asked Extel to
turn their minds to getting an ADSL 2+ type booster but that's not what we're
talking about today," he said.
Mr Campbell, speaking to
reporters at the National Farmers Federation annual conference in Canberra,
said customers in regional Australia already using satellite broadband would
not be affected.
New customers, though, could be hooked up with the Extel technology with the help of a subsidy from the federal government's $107.8 million Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme.
About EXTEL Communications
EXTEL
Communications was established in 1991 with the aim of providing
telecommunications carriers around the world with innovative high quality
access network products. EXTEL offers
an established range of access network products and has been profitable in
every year since formation. Over
500,000 subscribers in 14 countries are currently connected to their
telecommunications provider via EXTEL equipment.
More
information on Extel Communications is available at extelcomms.com/company/overview/index.html
For
more information, please contact:
Michael
Tomlinson
Phone: +613 8542 9200
Email: pr@extelcomms.com