Telecommunications services and local access provision

The Manchester based regional electricity company, NORWEB plc, decided, along with a number of other power companies, to enter the public telecommunications business, based on the experience of developing and operating its own comprehensive private telecommunications network which supports the voice and data needs of its electricity distribution core business activities. In so doing it created a new operating division, NORWEB Communications and now employs 150 staff. NORWEB Communications provides a full range of high quality voice and data services to businesses in the North West and public switched telephony services with direct connection to its network, initially to businesses in Manchester city centre. NORWEB Communications has developed a specific implementation of power line communications in which an electricity distribution network, or any element thereof, may be `conditioned´ such that it might carry, simultaneously, two or more electrical signals extending from ultralow frequencies, e.g. 50/60 Hz, to ultrahigh frequencies, e.g. 500/600 MHz, without any mutual impairment