Mains brings 1Mbit hope to web slow lanes

Data-over-the-mains has made a comeback in Britain to offer a new broadband option for people outside the catchment areas of cable and ADSL - and competition for both elsewhere.
    Southern Electric charges £30 a month for a pilot symmetrical 1Mbit/sec link in Winchester - better than ADSL or cable, which offer just 250Kbits/sec upstream. Similar pilots are being run by its parent, the Scottish and Southern Energy Group, in Crieff, Campbeltown and Stonehaven in Scotland.
    Nortel and Norweb trialled a similar scheme in Manchester but stopped it in 2001, claiming a lack of demand and 'a few remaining technical problems'. The technology is similar to ADSL, in that a high-frequency signal shares the same line as a low-frequency stream - 50cycles per second in the case of the AC mains, voice audio in that of ADSL. Just as phone exchanges need to be ADSL-enabled, so do electricity substations, which vary enormously in size.
    A spokeswoman for Southern Electric could not say how much this costs, but said that there was scope for delivery to small, relatively remote communities. The Scottish trials were sponsored by the local development agency for just this reason.
    BT's latest 'midband' offering, also aimed at people in the broadband 'shadowlands', looks miserly by comparison. It is basically a repackaging of the old Home Highway service, which provided one 64K ISDN line and standard line for £25 a month plus £9.25 line rental.
    The new BT Midband service costs £35 all in, and switches automatically between 64K and 128K depending on whether the voice line is being used. Included is 150 hours of 64K surfing, within which 128K access counts as double time.     Existing Home Highway users can upgrade for free; otherwise there's a £74.99 installation fee.
    Meanwhile Telewest has announced the pricing of its desirable new consumer 2Mbit/sec service (see our Special Report): £55 a month, or £50 to peoplee who also use its phone service. More on that in next month's issue.