Australian electronic company AWA Pty Ltd, Sydney is combining technologies with Siemens AG to develop a system of pay television and interactive television using existing copper telephone wires: the pair see a $250m or so new market in Australia, with around 1m subscribers expected to sign up for the system between 1995 and the year 2000, and reckon that it also has export potential; last week the former Amalgamated Wireless of Australasia won a contract to supply prototype technology for the system from state-owned Telecom Australia, which is a member of a media consortium committed to exploring pay television; Over the last decade, AWA has been developing core multi-media products ideally suited to the switching and distribution of cable television over copper wires, said AWA group general manager Laurie MacKechnie.
