A technology that delivers broadband speeds over copper lines at a speed comparable to fiber is gaining momentum.

Telekom Austria said this week it had connected the first subscriber in the world to its domestic network with G.fast, which offers data rates of up to several 100 Mbit/s via existing copper lines. That will meet the needs of even the most demanding households over the next 10 to 20 years, according to the operator.

G.fast increases the bandwidth by using more spectrum. That places extra demands on equipment to be very good at handling interference, a far from trivial requirement.

G.fast only works over short distances, up to 250 meters, so it is only used to connect subscribers to the nearest distribution point; the rest of the network must be fiber. That means it can’t replace all slow DSL lines, but it will be used where it’s difficult or too expensive for operators to install fiber all the way to the subscriber’s modem.

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