nbn announces G.fast launch for 2018

Next-generation broadband technology to deliver ultra-fast speeds

NBN Co, the company building Australia’s broadband network, announced today that it will be adding next-generation broadband technology, G.fast, to its Multi-Technology toolkit in 2018, paving the way for ultra-fast speeds over copper lines on the nbn™ broadband access network.

Bringing G.fast technology into its Multi Technology Model (MTM) will allow NBN Co to enable even faster speeds to end-users on our Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) and Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) networks where those ultra-high speeds are required.

G.fast can take broadband speeds past the current 100Mbps levels delivered by VDSL technology to deliver speeds of up to 1Gbps over copper lines by using higher frequencies of either 106MHz or 212MHz – compared to just 17MHz on VDSL.

Global operators including AT&T in the US, BT in the UK, Swisscom and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom have already launched the technology to end-users.

NBN Co trialled G.fast technology in October 2015, achieving speeds of 600Mbps on a 20 year-old stretch of 100 metre copper cabling, and will conduct further testing before launch.

G.fast technology will be supplied by the company's three existing fixed-broadband suppliers Nokia, ADTRAN and Netcomm Wireless.

JB Rousselot, Chief Strategy Officer, nbn said:

“Bringing G.fast technology to the nbn™ access network in 2018 again shows our commitment to being at the cutting edge of emerging technologies.

“Adding G.fast to the toolkit for the FTTC and FTTB networks will allow us to deliver ultra-fast services faster and more cost effectively than if we had to deliver them on a full Fibre-to-the-Premises connection.

“Our FTTP and HFC end-users already have the technology to support Gigabit services and adding G.fast over FTTC provides the upgrade path for our FTTN end users to ultimately receive Gigabit speeds too.”