Three hundred households in the rural Deepdene, Wheelers Hill and Clayton areas of Australia will receive broadcast quality television pictures over existing copper phone lines in a Telstra Corp trial due to start in May. If successful, the trial will open the way for people in rural areas and low density outer suburbs to receive cable television over existing telephone lines. Telstra hopes that the ADSL technology will prove more economical than its $4,000m cable system in outer areas. NEC Australia is co-ordinating the trial network and has designed a network management system that automatically alerts Telstra to faults. The households will receive interactive video-on-demand and scheduled movie services.
