Broadband Forum launches Gfast Council

The Broadband Forum launched the Gfast Council to centralise and disseminate the expertise and experience of the Gfast market in order to facilitate the rapid deployment of Gfast implementations. Gfast is the new gigabit broadband access technology that deploys faster by extending fibre to existing wiring infrastructure. The Gfast Council will inform the market through events, white papers, use cases and other resources.

The Council will also promote the Gfast Certification programme, which announced the first products to have successfully completed the Gfast certification programme from the Forum and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Arris, Calix, Huawei, Metanoia, Nokia and Technicolor worked with the Broadband Forum and UNH-IOL to achieve the Gfast Device Certification. In addition, the UNH-IOL made the Gfast test automation software commercially available, which controls the Telebyte test and measurement equipment, enabling device manufacturers to easily pre-test in their own labs and service providers to easily regression test software updates from their suppliers.

Open to all Broadband Forum members, the Council will represent the Broadband Forum and the Gfast community Broadband Forum and at industry events such as today’s TNO Ultrafast broadband event in The Hague. The formation of the Gfast Council follows the creation of the NG-PON2 Council by the Forum earlier in 2017.