NEC NEXTEP to upgrade to ADSL2+

The company has recently commissioned new ADSL2+ hardware for three telephone exchange rollouts, and will seek to upgrade its existing network of 95 exchanges with ADSL2+ capable digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) hardware.

"More sites are planned in the near future," a statement from the company said.

NEC's three new exchanegs are located in Silverwater (west of Sydney), Dandenong in Victoria and Toowong (outside of Brisbane).

While the existing 95 exchanges can only deliver speeds of up to 8Mbps, the ADSL2+ hardware upgrade would enable higher speeds of up to 24Mbps -- opening the broadband gate for the delivery of content services such as Voice over Internet Protocol and video on demand.

One Internet provider to benefit from the planned upgrades will be Pacific Internet, which resells NEC's broadband products.

NEC's moves come amid ADSL2 and ADSL2+ rollouts by competitors like Amcom, Adam Internet, Primus, iiNet and Internode. Telstra said recently it would look to enable all its exchanges for ADSL2+ service by mid-2006.