To reduce
power consumption and associated heating in a
line card of line termination equipment (LTE, 12) employing multiple cub-channel carriers to communicate
broadband information to customer premise equipment (CPE, 30) down a
wireline communication resource (26, sub-channel carrier transmissions are restricted (58) during periods of CPE inactivity. Power supplies to a power
amplifier (30) associated with the
line card and
wireline resource (26) are reduced, with
digital signal processing capabilities of the LTE (12) further restricted (64). When the CPE wishes to re-start communication, the CPE (30) locks (68) to a correct alignment in a transmission scheme using a
pilot tone that is transmitted within a simple pattern sent during reduced sub-channel carrier transmissions. Alternatively, should all transmission from the LTE cease during CPE inactivity, then the CPE monitors (80) the transmission environment and sends (82) a wake-up call to the LTE between boundaries of an uplink slot. The LTE (12) re-establishes
pilot tone transmissions (86), with synchronization and lock (88) subsequently achievable by the CPE (30): this is illustrated in FIG. 2.