The CSIRO has invented new wireless internet technology that will give people in remote areas faster broadband by using old analog TV channels.

It is designed to fill the gap in the National Broadband Network (NBN), where some homes and businesses are too remote to be connected to optic fibre.

Although the wireless connection will never reach the same speeds as optic fibre, it will be a dramatic improvement over current wireless technology.

The CSIRO says the technology can reach speeds 100 to 200 times the speed of dial-up internet.

It will soon test the technology in Smithton, in a remote town in north-west Tasmania that is one of the first places in the country being connected to the NBN.

Smithton Mayor Daryl Quilliam says the wireless technology is very important because the optic fibre that is going to be installed in Smithton as part of the NBN will not reach everyone.

"Probably over half the people in our area live in the country and the National Broadband system as we have it now in Smithton is not going to cover the rural area," he said.

"A lot of the job creation and wealth that is created in the rural areas actually comes from not within towns but actually in the country and so to have a fast internet service is going to be extremely important for farmers in general."

The technology is called Ngara, which is an Aboriginal word meaning listen, hear and think.

CSIRO's Dr Ian Oppermann says Ngara works by using old analog TV channels to make a fast connection to the internet.

The CSIRO hopes to eventually combine four analog TV channels and provide a wireless connection speed of 100 megabits per second.

But for the moment it is staying at 12 megabits per second.

Dr Oppermann says that is faster than it sounds, because up to six customers can log on at the same time and get the top speed.

"The person sitting in rural areas can actually become the content generator as opposed to just the content consumer," he said.

"So, whilst it might be email, Facebook and movies [that] download faster, what we're really trying to do is enable people who live in remote and rural areas to generate content, so they contribute to the services economy in the same way that someone sitting in an urban environment [does]," he said.

He says the connection will be so fast that people in remote areas of the country will be able to use the internet to have face-to-face meetings with people in the city.

'Impressive technology'

Technology consultant Robin Simpson says the new wireless network is impressive because it reuses old analog TV frequencies.

"A lot of rural properties already have a TV antenna - it might be sitting on top of a 40-foot pole to get the TV, but if they currently get TV then potentially with this technology they could get high-speed internet as well, using the same antenna," he said.

"It's quite interesting in that almost all of the other technologies that might be proposed for this need new antennas and new base stations - this one doesn't."

RMIT technology lecturer Dr Mark Gregory says the concept is good, but it could be some time before rural Australians get connected.

"It will take quite a few years to actually turn the research into actual products, so I wouldn't expect to see any outcomes in this area over the next three to five years," he said.

The development of Ngara has been funded by the proceeds of another one of the CSIRO's wireless inventions, WiFi.

The CSIRO has been paid $205 million from companies that had been using the popular wireless technology without paying for it.