ITU-T Study Group 15, which is responsible for networks, technologies and infrastructures for transport, access and home, amended standards to include the increased speeds and also added support for coaxial cable.
The first ITU standard harnesses up to 106MHZ of spectrum frequency to deliver top speeds of 1Gbps on copper lines of less than 50 metres. However, in its latest amendments, that standard will allow 212MHz to be used instead, increasing possible speeds.
The ITU has also enabled G.fast technology to be used over coaxial copper cables, “enabling the coexistence of G.fast and satellite signals in coaxial cable infrastructure” it said in a statement.
“The third amendment of ITU-T G.9701 doubles the aggregate net data rate achievable with G.fast, increasing its capacity to 2Gbit/s using spectrum up to 212 MHz. The update to the standard maintains spectral compatibility with VDSL2. The coexistence of G.fast and VDSL2 offers service providers the agility required to switch customers between G.fast and VDSL2 as business operations demand.”
G.fast technology is set to be rolled out across several major networks in the coming months. BT infrastructure arm Openreach announced last month that it had selected Huawei and Nokia for its deployment of the technology, which it claims will pass 10 million UK premises by 2020.
Tunisie Telecom has also completed trials of G.fast over its broadband network with Adtran.
