VoIP delivered over power-line broadband

"The Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls have successfully been linked to land-line and mobile phones as part of a trial being carried out in [the regional NSW city of] Queanbeyan," Country issued a statement saying. The company said the trial would probably continue for another 18 months.

Touting the benefits of BPL technology for rural and regional consumers, the company's telecommunications enterprises manager, Geoff Fietz, was also honest about its potential to help his company's bottom line.

"It also offers Country Energy another way of improving customer service as it gives us faster and more cost-effective ways to manage, monitor and control the network, and read household meters," he said.

The statement said the trials were conducted by plugging one of Engin's Internet telephony adapters into a normal handset and a Mitsubishi BPL modem. "The modem was plugged into a standard powerpoint," it said.

"This demonstrates the enormous potential of the technology -- every powerpoint becomes a broadband delivery point," said Fietz.