As Communications Minister Stephen Conroy pushes to spend over $43 Billion on the roll out of a fibre based broadband network in Australia tests have revealed that broadband can be pushed across a DSL network similar to Telstra’s existing copper network at speeds up to 700 MBs.
According to research group Ovum DSL technology is still a viable proposition for fast broadband.
Last week Chinese Company Huawei, demonstrated prototype DSL equipment that was able to support 700Mbps transmission on four twisted pairs over 400 metres.
They claim that this demonstrates that there is still a lot of life left in DSL technology.
Indeed, other vendors have previously unveiled their own approaches to boosting DSL bandwidth capacity. The future may be with fibre, but Ovum’s research indicates that growth remains for DSL.
Ovum analyst Kamalini Ganguly said “Ovum believes the DSL equipment market will not wither away anytime soon. DSL subscriber growth is slowing in many countries and DSL subscribers, in places like Japan and Korea, are being replaced by FTTH/FTTB subscribers, DSL equipment will still be used in many hybrid fibre-copper architecture” he said.
Ovum forecasts that even in 2015, 63 million DSL ports will be shipped globally”.
Currently the bulk of Australia’s broadband connections are over a DSL network.
Companies that have demonstrated high speed broadband over DSL networks include Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.
In the USA AT&T is set to roll out a high speed network using DSL technology using twisted pairs for high speed delivery into homes.
Ovum said that when commercially launched, DSL solutions should be cheaper than FTTH, but ultimately the cost comparison and adoption timeline will depend on how these technologies are incorporated by networks like Telstra.
They say that the evolution of DSL equipment will be a challenge.
