The ESB is monitoring progress by a team of scientists in England which has developed a means of providing Internet access to the home via the electricity mains.

The new technology will enable electricity companies to offer their customers Internet access at speeds 30 times greater than those currently offered by high-speed modems attached to telephone lines.

Domestic consumers have potentially the most to gain from the service which could allow internet access to the home at more affordable prices. Householders could make a single monthly payment for unlimited Internet usage.

An ESB spokesman said the company had noted reports of the development and would be monitoring further progress. But because the technology had been developed in association with a British electricity group, it was most likely to be patented as proprietary technology.

The system currently relies on a special feed from the household electricity meter, but the developers are confident that within a few years personal computer owners will just have to plug them into the nearest household electricity point to hook up to the Internet. At the moment, the system has to use conventional telecommunications networks to link the electricity sub-stations to the Internet, but the research team hopes to eventually avoid this by using the country's high-voltage national grid instead. Norweb Communications has developed the technology with Canadian group Nortel.