International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has awarded first stage approval to the 500Mbps DSL successor and fiber alternative dubbed G.fast paving way for hardware companies to finalized equipment specifications that will support the new standard.
G.fast has been dubbed as a new broadband standard using which access speeds of up to 1 Gbps can be achieved using existing telephone wires. The standard is also looked at as being a potential tool that will enable service providers bring fibre to the home (FTTH) connectivity while allowing for self-installation as in ADSL2. ITU revealed that through the G.fast standard “service providers will benefit from ‘zero touch’ operations, administration and management” that will allow for faster rollout of new services while also easing up migration to G.fast.
ITU revealed that the physical layer specifications of the G.fast defined by Recommendation ITU-T G.9701 have reached a point of stability from whereon chip manufacturers can take on G.fast chip design and testing efforts “feeding results of this work into ITU-T Study Group 15 in the interests of finalizing G.fast as early as April 2014.”
ITU has also revealed that a large number of leading service providers, chip manufacturers and system vendors have actively participated in the G.fast project and those who have been involved in the standard’s development have “already confirmed the standard’s gigabit-per-second capability through lab and field trials using prototype equipment based on mature drafts of the standard.”
Tom Starr, Chairman of Working Party 1, ITU-T Study Group 15, said: “G.fast’s development has followed an intensive work plan, meeting ambitious time-to-market objectives. The standard will enable service providers to deliver fibre-like performance more quickly and more affordably than with any other approach.”
[Source: ITU press release]
The distances G.fast is effective will be interesting. If just an addition to the digital elite from upgraded fibre cabinets for instance. It will be a long time not coming for many of us in the UK.