the meter room, the speed is up to 45 Mbit/s and can be connected to 256 PLC modems. In the medium voltage stations, the speed from the head ends to the Internet is up to 135 Mbit/s. To connect to the Internet, utilities can use optical fiber backbone or fixed wireless. Utility companies use frequencies below 490 kHz for their own data applications. Most BPL equipment was built to operate between 1.7 MHz and 30 MHz and occasionally up to 80 MHz. Technical challenges Deployment of BPL has illustrated a number of fundamental challenges, the primary one being that power lines are inherently a very noisy environment. Every time a device turns on or off, it introduces a pop or click into the line. Switching power supplies often introduce noisy harmonics into the line. And unlike coaxial cable or twisted-pair, the wiring has no inherent noise rejection. The second major issue is electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). The system was expected to use frequencies of 10 to 30 MHz in the high frequency (HF) range, used for decades by military, aeronautical, amateur radio, and by shortwave broadcasters. Power lines are unshielded and will act as antennas for the signals they carry, and they will cause interference to high frequency radio communications and broadcasting. In 2007, NATO Research and Technology Organisation released a report which concluded that widespread deployment of BPL may have a "possible detrimental effect upon military HF radio communications." Deployments There have been many attempts worldwide to implement access BPL, all which have indicated that BPL is not viable as a means of delivering broadband Internet access. This is because of two problems: limited reach, and low bandwidth which do not come close to matching ADSL, Wi-Fi, and even 3G mobile. World major providers have either limited their BPL deployments to low-bandwidth connected equipment via smart grids, or ceased BPL operations altogether. Australia saw trials of access BPL between 2004 and 2007; but no active access BPL deployments appear to remain there. In the UK, the BBC published the results of tests to detect interference from BPL installations. In the US, in October 2004, the US Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to facilitate the deployment of "Access BPL", the marketing term for Internet access service over power lines. The technical rules are more liberal than those advanced by the US national amateur radio organization, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL),