Powerline broadband pilot nets 200 trialists

Need for speed

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Telecoms, 6th May 2003 11:18 GMT

Free whitepaper – Enabling Datacenter and Cloud Service Management for Mid-Tier Enterprises

Southern Electric claims it has received a "good amount of interest" in its commercial trial of broadband through three-pin electrical sockets in Winchester.

Details of the trial were formally announced at the end of April. Since then, around two hundred people have signed up for the service via Southern Electric's Web site.

In total, Southern Electric is looking for around a thousand people to take part in the commercial trial, which is due to begin in June. At the end of the year the company will take stock of the trial and see whether it makes commercial sense to roll-out the service to other parts of the country.

The broadband service is expected to cost around £30 a month delivering speeds up to 1Mbps.

The Register reported back in March that Winchester had been selected to take part in the trial.

Southern Electric is the trading name of the Scottish and Southern Energy Group. Another company in the group - Scottish Hydro-Electric - is also trialling the broadband over electric cables technology in Stonehaven, Scotland. ®

Winchester chosen for BB Powerline trial

Free whitepaper – Enabling Datacenter and Cloud Service Management for Mid-Tier Enterprises