nbn has announced it will add next-generation broadband technology to its Multi-Technology toolkit in 2018.
According to the company, bringing G.fast technology into its Multi Technology Model (MTM) will allow faster speeds to end users on their Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) and Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) networks where those ultra-high speeds are required.
G.fast can take broadband speeds past the current 100Mbps levels delivered by VDSL technology to deliver speeds of up to 1Gbps over copper lines by using higher frequencies of either 106MHz or 212MHz – compared to just 17MHz on VDSL.
Global operators including AT&T in the US, BT in the UK, Swisscom and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom have already launched the technology to end users.
nbn trialled G.fast technology in October 2015, achieving speeds of 600Mbps on a 20 year-old stretch of 100m copper cabling, and will conduct further testing before launch.
G.fast technology will be supplied by the company’s three existing fixed-broadband suppliers Nokia, ADTRAN and Netcomm Wireless.
Chief Strategy Officer, nbn, JB Rousselot, said bringing the technology to the nbn access network shows nbn’s commitment to being at the cutting edge of emerging technologies.
“Adding G.fast to the toolkit for the FTTC and FTTB networks will allow us to deliver ultra-fast services faster and more cost effectively than if we had to deliver them on a full Fibre-to-the-Premises connection,” Mr Rousselot said.
“Our FTTP and HFC end users already have the technology to support Gigabit services and adding G.fast over FTTC provides the upgrade path for our FTTN end users to ultimately receive Gigabit speeds too.”
