| | By Nick Farrell in Rome @ Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:50 AM
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| | Aussie boffins are working out a way of connecting far away places in the outback to the world wide web by firing lasers at them.
 When it comes to wide open spaces, Australia has more than its fair share and this means that there are some rural areas that still think the telephone is a pretty neat idea. Some are still using bullroarers to communicate, although the bandwidth is not every good.
Ka Lun Lee from the University of Melbourne say high-speed digital subscriber line or cable internet service is too expensive to use in rural areas. Satellite and fixed wireless, offer wider coverage but are often unreliable and expensive.
What they found that gigabit passive optical networks provide the lowest cost at higher bit rates. The only problem is that the signal weakens after 19 miles.
Lee has been experimenting with some kit called a Raman amplifier. This is installed in an access point and boosts the signal by a factor of 10.
According to UPI, he will be showing his research in San Diego during the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference on Monday. X
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