BT and Alcatel-Lucent hit 5Gbps over copper
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BT and Alcatel-Lucent hit 5Gbps over copper

British incumbent BT and French vendor Alcatel-Lucent have achieved speeds of more than 5Gbps over existing copper broadband in their latest trial.

The trial utilised XG.FAST technology which is a potential future development of G.fast. The latter is designed to deliver high speed broadband without laying fibre all the way to a home or business.

XG.FAST is in the early stages of development but during trials at Adastral Park – BT’s global research and development campus in Suffolk, UK – and Alcatel-Lucent’s labs in Antwerp, Belgium, it delivered record aggregate speeds of 5.65Gbps over 35m of BT cable.

Over a longer distance of 100m, the technology also performed well with aggregate speeds of 1.8Gbps.

“We know that G.fast will transform the UK’s broadband landscape but these results also give us confidence the technology has significant headroom should we need it in the future,” said Mike Galvin, managing director of next generation access for BT’s technology service and operations division.

G.fast is being trialled by BT’s broadband unit Openreach, with plans in place to provide 10 million premises with high speed broadband services by the end of 2020.

“The UK already boasts the biggest fibre footprint among major European nations, as well as the highest takeup, but it is vital we continue to invest,” Galvin said.

“G.fast is the answer if the UK is to have widespread and affordable ultrafast broadband sooner rather than later.”

 

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