Telekom Austria Group announced that at a demonstration carried out together with Nokia in Vienna in the week from 13 to 17 March, transmission rates in excess of 10 Gbps were achieved for the first time in Austria via copper cable on the fixed line network. The record speed was made possible by an advance in existing G.fast technology, which also supports ultra-high-speed broadband internet over conventional copper lines and which, in future, will be able to cover steadily rising demand for high bandwidth internet services.
The Austrian subsidiary A1 is using the potential of existing copper lines in residential areas. The test conducted in Vienna used a 30 meter long copper cable and test equipment supplied by Nokia Bell Labs, the company's research lab. A1 and Nokia demonstrated that the copper cables existing between sidewalk or basement of a building or apartments suffice to achieve speeds in excess of 10 Gbps in future. Two-hour HD films could thus be downloaded in less than 10 seconds and 1,000 photos transferred in less than two seconds. Households could be given access to the A1 fibre optic network with no drilling and chiselling work and without the time and expense this involves.
In urban areas in particular, demand for broadband with data transmission rates in excess of 100 Mbps is growing faster than an area-wide high-speed fibre infrastructure can be completed. XG-Fast enables the company to bring fibre-speed internet to customers over its existing telephone copper wires, said Sascha Zabransky, Director Group Technology & Future Services at Telekom Austria Group about the demonstration. A1 remains faithful to its long-term vision to bring fibre lines to every home, but until then, XG-Fast will serve as a smart bridging technology, Zabransky added.
XG-Fast uses the final stretch of the existing copper network to bring fast internet to homes and offices. The test carried out shows that in a few years' time, the potential of existing networks will be used to bring broadband to customers.
Peter Wukowits, Nokia Country Manager Austria and Head of the Customer Business Team Central Europe, said that together with A1, it is working towards providing high bandwidth services quickly and cost-effectively, using a combination of fibre and copper technologies. Wukowits said the XG-Fast trial is an important milestone in its efforts to achieve very high speeds even over copper wires, and at the same time, to bring fibre technology closer to residential and business customers.
A1 is constantly adapting transmission technologies to rising bandwidth requirements. The G.fast and XG-Fast technologies are particularly suitable for FTTB (Fibre-to-the-Building) expansion in residential areas. Under this model, A1 installs high-speed fibre-optics lines to a node in the cellar of the building or the boundary of the property, which then connects with the existing line.
