BT connects first ultra-fast broadband line in G.fast trial

One gigabit per second broadband over copper coming to your home - within the next decade or so...

BT has today connected the first of 2,000 homes and businesses to a 330 megabits per second (Mbit/s) broadband line in Huntingdon, Cambridge, as part of its trial of G.fast ultra-fast broadband.

BT claims that it will start deploying G.fast from next year or early 2017 "alongside its fibre-to-the-cabinet and fibre-to-the-premises services", with the technology forming part of the company's commitment to provide ultra-fast broadband of up to one gigabit per second (Gbit/s) to homes and businesses within the next decade.

In total, some 4,000 homes and businesses in Swansea, Gosforth and Newcastle will trial G.fast from this summer, for six to nine months, before it is rolled out across the country.

G.fast was first trialled in BT's labs at Adastral Park at Martlesham in Suffolk. It is based on DSL lines for local loops shorter than 500 metres. Performance can be anywhere between 150Mbit/s to one gigabit per second (Gbit/s).

However, like DSL, performance is dependent on proximity to the nearest G.fast cabinet, and BT will need to install thousands of new cabinets in order to be able to provide the promised performance. Businesses and households outside of major towns and cities may need to be served by alternative technologies in order to receive similar performance broadband.

"This is the largest trial of G.fast technology in the world and it builds on the pioneering research of BT's world-class R&D teams," said Joe Garner, CEO of BT's Openreach telecoms infrastructure business.

He continued: "We conducted the world's first G.fast trial in 2013, and our experts have been heavily involved in creating global industry standards for this technology. We're now eager to support all our service providers in learning how customers enjoy the service."

The trials started this week follow a commitment by BT CEO Gavin Patterson in January to roll out ultra-fast broadband across the UK over the next decade.

"We believe G.fast is the key to unlocking ultrafast speeds and we are prepared to upgrade large parts of our network should the pilots prove successful. That upgrade will depend however on there continuing to be a stable regulatory environment that supports investment," he said at the time.

He continued: "The UK is ahead of its major European neighbours when it comes to broadband and we need to stay ahead as customer demands evolve. G.fast will allow us to do that by building on the investment we have made in fibre to date. It will transform the UK broadband landscape from superfast to ultra-fast in the quickest possible time-frame."

BT claims that it has pioneered research into G.fast since 2007 and been heavily involved in driving the creation of global industry standards in that time. It is working on the trials with telecoms networking equipment makers ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei, as well as with chipset manufacturers and global standards bodies.