We all know that the new plan for the National Broadband Network involves delivering connectivity over copper for the so-called last mile, that’s just something we have to live with. NBN Co is trying to make that all a little easier on us by revealing results from an early trial of G.Fast technology to supercharge copper lines. NBN Co achieved 970Mbps over G.Fast copper, but there’s a massive catch: the cable was 20 metres long.
NBN Co’s Chief Architect, Tony Cross, wrote in a blog post today that the company had been testing its super-charged copper lines over the last few months.
He wrote that NBN Co scored a 970Mbps download speed in the lab on what I assume is shiny new copper (that is, not like the shit copper buried in your street).
Almost a gigabit worth of speed over copper is insanely impressive, and shows that G.Fast has real promise. The massive catch is that the speed can’t be maintained over distance.
It’s slightly more encouraging to hear that over a slightly longer distance (100m) in the real world (a Melbourne office block), NBN Co achieved “over 600Mbps”. So there’s that.
Fibre To The Node is designed as such so that each street gets its own node. When you think about Aussie streets, you realise that it might actually be ok when it comes to distance.
The point here is that G.Fast speeds over copper are going to vary wildly depending on what’s buried under your street.
That sounds WAY better than fibre to the home, right guys?!