Nbn Co., the broadband venture backed by the Australian government, said it will add G.fast to its access network toolkit as it looks to deliver faster speeds on fiber-to-the-building and fiber-to-the-curb networks.
G.fast is a new standard that aims to deliver gigabit-class speeds to DSL and other copper-based networks. By way of recent example, Sckipio, a G.fast chipmaker, is demoing 4 Gbps speeds (3.1 Gbps down and 900 Mbps upstream) at this week’s Broadband World Forum in Berlin, Germany.
RELATED: Australia’s nbn Marks Broadband Deployment Progress
Nbn, which announced its G.fast plans at the Berlin event, said it will start to adopt G.fast in 2018, expanding on its use of other access technologies that include fiber-to-the-premises, HFC and satellite-based broadband service delivery. It has tapped three suppliers – Nokia, Adtran and Netcomm Wireless, for the G.fast portion of its initiative.
RELATED: NBN Hits 100 Mbps-Plus with Less Costly Fiber-to-the-Curb Tech
Nbn expects G.fast to help it take speeds beyond 100Mbps delivered today on VDSL technology, and hit up to 1 Gbps using g higher frequencies of either 106 MHz or 212 MHz. G.fast is being used in limited ways by telcos such as AT&T, BT, Swisscom and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom.
RELATED: AT&T Expands Commitment to G.fast
Nbn said it tested G.fast technology in October 2015 and achieved speeds of 600Mbps on a 20 year-old stretch of 100-meter copper cabling, and will conduct further testing before launch.
