Telekom Austria hails broadband record

Telekom Austria has announced that it has achieved data rates of over 1Gbps over its existing copper network for the first time using G.fast technology from Alcatel Lucent.

In test operations, Telekom Austria subsidiary A1 achieved data rates of up to 1Gbps for a short distance of 100 metres.

The technology is designed to deliver ultra high-speed broadband over existing copper lines within buildings served by fibre. According to Telekom Austria, G.fast is particularly well suited for short loops of roughly 100 metres and for use in multi-dwelling units.

“As a leader in fixed broadband and a pioneer of vectoring – being the first vendor to ship 1 million VDSL2 vectoring lines – Alcatel-Lucent is ideally placed to help Telekom Austria understand the potential of G.fast and vectoring. G.fast underlines the specialist expertise Alcatel-Lucent brings to customers like Telekom Austria as they expand their footprint of ultra-broadband access coverage. While this is only a trial, the impressive results show the enormous potential of G.fast for service providers around the world,” said Federico Guillen, Leader Business Line Fixed Access Alcatel-Lucent.

G.fast is currently undergoing standardisation and will be commercially available within the next few years, according to the company.