Alcatel-Lucent Boosts Broadband Over Copper To 300Mbps

alphadogg writes "Alcatel-Lucent has come up with a way to move data at 300Mbps over copper lines. So far the results have only been reproduced in a lab environment — real products and services won't be available for at least a year. From the article: 'Researchers at the company's Bell Labs demonstrated the 300Mbps technology over a distance of 400 meters using VDSL2 (Very high bitrate Digital Subscriber Line), according to Stefaan Vanhastel, director of product marketing at Alcatel-Lucent Wireline Networks. The test showed that it can also do 100Mbps over a distance of 1,000 meters, he said. Currently, copper is the most common broadband medium. About 65 percent of subscribers have a broadband connection that's based on DSL, compared to 20 percent for cable and 12 percent for fiber, according to market research company Point Topic. Today, the average advertised DSL speeds for residential users vary between 9.2 Mbps and 1.9Mbps in various parts of the world, Point Topic said.'"

Re:Great news but...

[BobPaul]

Most homes have been wired for 2 lines for decades. The wall plates might only support 1 line, but the house wiring generally supports 2. And the cables running to the home frequently support 4 or more lines, even if only 1 is hooked up.

So, I don't really see 3 as being an issue. They certainly won't be tearing up anyones yards to implement this.

Re:Um

[Yaa 101]

No, why bring 1Gbs immediately instead of an elevated route to 1Gbs and make a shitload of money in the process?

These are the conflicting interests between you and the telecom company, besides all this nice equipment needs to be paid as well.

I am afraid though that most US based people will see these speeds in the 23rd century if the telecoms over there keep their current pace.

Re:VDSL2

[PopeRatzo]

Unless we implement net neutrality rules, all we'll end up with is a really fast connection to Disney/Warner anyway.

Re:Great news but...

[Demonantis]

The issue is how the phone companies operate. You can only make what the consumer is willing to spend. 9 times out of 10 they have a monopoly in the area so why worry. No one can snatch you away from their service. They have no one to compete with and drive them to provide the best service possible. You probably won't see any change with consumer internet connections.

Re:Great news but...

[Eravnrekaree]

many trunk lines already probably have an extra set, since they are designed for many lines per house. they could just throw extra lines into the digital stream. As well, it would cut costs to implement, since a loop extender can be added at 1 km, so it reduces the amount of new cable that must be laid. Its a far better way to get broadband to rural areas than the crazy and dumb idea of BPL.

nice. what's the backchannel like?

[Eunuchswear]

300Mbps/64Kbps would be rather boring.

Re:VDSL2

[JasterBobaMereel]

I suspect that even in the UK (which has a much higher population density than the US) the majority of people live more than 1km from an exchange ...and this assumes that the copper is relatively new and has clean connections ....

In the US I suspect this is completely pointless for most people .... the only thing is that it might mean that they can get broadband at all ...