BT’s Openreach has taken the next steps towards introducing its G Fast services. Late last week, internet service providers (ISPs) were briefed on how to join customer trials. In Friday’s briefing, Openreach tried to get providers on board for its NGA2 (Next Generation Access) products, which consist of G Fast as well as an improved FTTP on-demand product that allows providers to extend fibre from the cabinet to the premises for significantly improved speeds.
The briefing on Friday was specific to Huntingdon, but future trial locations are thought to include Swansea, Gosforth and Newcastle. Customers in the area of Huntington are expected to be contacted within the next few weeks.
G Fast is a new type of access network technology that offers up to gigabit speeds, while still using copper wires to connect customers’ homes to their nearest cabinet. However, customer taking part in the trial will not receive combined upload and download gigabit speeds. Instead, they will apparently receive 330Mbps down and 30Mbps up speeds which match Openreach’s current fastest fibre to the premises (FTTP) service.
Customer’s modems connect to the Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) which Openreach will bring closer to the premises in order for G Fast to attain its high speeds. With current superfast broadband, the DSLAM is housed in a green cabinet on the street and this cabinet can be up to a mile away from the customer’s house. With G Fast, the DSLAM will be within 250 metres, or 800 feet, of the premises. G Fast DSLAMs will need to connect to Openreach’s fibre backhaul network.
G Fast uses higher frequency signals to transport data over copper wires for the final part of the connection, so the maximum 250 metres is crucial. The higher frequencies allow for greater bandwidth and, therefore, faster data rates. However, they can’t travel very far on old twisted-pair copper wires before the signal degrades. Tests have shown that with G Fast, copper connections that are 66 metres, or 200 feet, long can deliver speeds of around 700Mbps down and 200Mbps up. These speeds increase to around 780Mbps down and 230Mbps up over shorter lines of 19 metres, or 62 feet, so the few houses within this distance will experience the best speeds.
Openreach reportedly hopes to introduce new processes to bring down the current installation cost of between £350 for installation of up to 199 metres, to £6,125 at 1.2 miles.
Openreach stated that it expects “a number of different ISPs” to take part in the G Fast trials, but have not specified which providers these are. It is, of course, likely that sister company BT will be one of them.
G Fast trials may be welcome news for consumers, but many ISPs are not happy with Openreach’s maintenance of current FTTC and ADSL services. It was recently reported that Ofcom is running a consultation into whether Openreach should be forced to split from BT Group. Ofcom is concerned about the performance of BT Openreach on behalf of other providers such as TalkTalk and their main rival Sky. Openreach was created ten years ago during Ofcom’s last strategic review, to provide access to BT’s telephone and broadband network to competing providers. Service providers pay BT a wholesale price for the use of the network, and then charge their customers accordingly. However, due to complaints regarding the service on behalf of these other providers, Ofcom are now opening a consultation into whether Openreach should be split into a separate company. Ofcom is seeking evidence and feedback on its suggestion by the 8th of October this year. Should the split happen the future of BT’s investment in the country’s broadband will become unclear.