This laptop screen shows six users sending data simultaneously.

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization has started testing its wireless broadband technology, which uses existing TV antennas, at the first National Broadband Network roll-out site of Smithton in Tasmania.

The system, named Ngara, works by installing antennas on existing TV broadcasting towers that transmit wireless broadband to households through their existing TV antennas, although slightly modified as some components in existing antennas don't allow them to be used as transmitters.

While the uplink test was a success, getting data downloaded was still a work in progress. "The team is only able to beam form to one user at the moment, but this is an experiment, not everything is going to work on the first go. We are confident we will get there soon," Ian Opperman, CSIRO's ICT center director, said in a statement.

Read more of "CSIRO trials TV aerial Wi-Fi broadband" at ZDNet Australia.