Nokia and Belgian operator Proximus have developed a technology that enables copper networks to deliver twice their usual speed. With ultra-dense vectoring, also known as 2MX6, street cabins can now connect twice as many houses to the internet, with a higher speed and lower energy consumption. The capacity of street cabinets will eventually increase to 384 from 192, doubling the bandwidth. The technology requires no special digging.
Proximus will install this technology mainly in areas where there are no immediate plans for large-scale fibre roll-outs. Proximus has used fibre-to-the-cabinet since 2004, but there are two types of network for connections to homes: fibre and copper. The operator has accelerated the fibre roll-out in the past year and aims to serve 70 percent of households with fibre by 2028.
The other network, the DSL network, is used where fibre is not yet available. The network has some limitations. For example, internet speeds slow down according to the distance of the cabinet to the home. After several upgrades to the network, Proximus introduced vectoring in 2013, pushing speeds up to 100 Mbps. Ultra-dense vectoring will build on this and increase maximum speeds and the number of connectable homes.
Proximus is the first player to deploy this technology, developed in collaboration with Nokia's Alcatel-Lucent branch in Antwerp. Nokia will provide the technology worldwide. The first to get the new system is a street cabinet in the city Andenne.
