Your telephone cable may soon give Internet speed of 10Gbps

Service providers promise you internet speed of 10 to 20 Mbps per second. But try downloading a file and you end up reaching a maximum download speed much lesser compared to what is promised.

Ask any service provider, and they’ll blame it on the last mile. Although the fibre optic cable is capable of transmitting the actual promised speed or more the last bit that links the end user to the system the copper cable is only capable of what many of us are currently receiving.

The problem however is less prevalent in UAE compared to several other major markets including major urban centres in India, where a promised speed of 3Mbps might actually mean a download speed of 300kbps.

But soon that may cease to be a viable excuse for slower internet speeds. Bell Labs the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent announced that it has set a new broadband speed record of 10 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) using traditional copper telephone lines.

It used a new prototype technology called XG-FAST that demonstrates how existing copper access networks can be used to deliver 1Gbps ‘symmetrical’ ultra-broadband access services.

XG fast is an extension of G fast technology which itself will only be commercially available next year.

G.fast will use a frequency range for data transmission of 106 MHz, giving broadband speeds up to 500 Mbps over a distance of 100 meters.

In contrast, XG-FAST uses an increased frequency range up to 500 MHz to achieve higher speeds but over shorter distances.

Bell Labs achieved 1 Gbps ‘symmetrical’ services – where bandwidth can be split to provide simultaneous upload and download speeds of 1 Gbps - over 70 meters on a single copper pair.

According to Alcatel Lucent 10 Gbps was achieved over a distance of 30 meters by using two pairs of lines. Both tests used standard copper cable provided by a European operator.

“Achieving 1 Gbps 'symmetrical' services is a major breakthrough for copper broadband. It will enable operators to provide Internet connection speeds that are indistinguishable from fiber-to-the-home services, a major business benefit in locations where it is not physically, economically or aesthetically viable to lay new fiber cables all the way into residences,” the company said in its announcement.

The new finding it said will enable greater speeds through the copper cable provided fiber can be brought to the curbside, wall or basement of a building and the existing copper network used for the final few meters.

Alcatel Lucent which is working on several major projects in the region including the UAE and Saudi Arabia earlier this year signed a major agreement with Etisalat to extend its LTE coverage in the United Arab Emirates, deploying a  LTE-FDD (long-term evolution frequency-division duplexing)-based network and high-speed mobile broadband.

Last month the company signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Zain to build a next-generation agile optical network throughout the Kingdom that will enable speeds of upto 100 gigabits-per-second (100G) throughout the country.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)

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