LAS VEGAS – Broadband Forum Chairman Kevin Foster told opening day attendees at CES 2016 the G.fast technology is key to quickly delivering innovative new services that require lots of bandwidth.
Foster, also GM for access and CPE innovation at BT, said 4K video, location-based services, security, home automation, video sharing, gaming and home office collaboration could all benefit from G.fast deployments.
“One of the issues is that you need more bandwidth and there’s only a few ways we can deliver 4K effectively with the bandwidth needed. G.fast, therefore, is a viable way of getting technologies out there quickly and effectively,” Foster said.
G.fast is a standard that specifies up to a 1 gigabit-per-second connection over a single twisted pair copper cable. That means consumers could get fiber speeds at home, while service providers could extend the lifespan of copper plants and phase fiber deployments.
“It also means that fiber to the cabinet is more viable because of what G.fast can achieve over the final copper-based yardage,” Foster said. “We can deliver tomorrow’s applications and the extra bandwidth they require competitively.”
Alcatel-Lucent has been a major proponent of G.fast deployments, announcing with Taiwanese telecom operator Chunghwa Telecom a plan to launch the world’s first commercial deployment of G.fast technology, allowing the acceleration of “last mile” connectivity to deliver broadband to households across Taiwan. Chunghwa Telecom is conducting a nationwide roll out of fiber-to-the-premises infrastructure to residential and business customers using a combination of fiber and copper technology. To accelerate the deployments, Chunghwa plans to deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON and G.fast technologies.
Alcatel-Lucent has already trialed the G.fast technology with more than 30 operators worldwide. G.fast, in particular, allows service providers to provide broadband access to locations where fiber deployment is difficult, using the final length of copper infrastructure extending into premises to deliver ultra-high speeds. Additionally, G.fast is designed to eliminate the need to rewire entire buildings and homes.
