UPDATE BT Confirm UK Plan to Trial 1Gbps G.Fast and FTTdp Broadband

BT Group has quietly confirmed that it plans to trial the next generation G.Fast (aka – FTTC2) broadband solution alongside another future enhancement – Fibre-to-the-Distribution-Point (FTTdp) – at its Adastral Park R&D facility near Ipswich in Suffolk (England).

The G.Fast (ITU G.9700) technology is a potential successor to FTTC (VDSL2) and one that alongside other enhancements, such as VDSL Vectoring to reduce interference (currently in trial), could potentially deliver top theoretical Internet download speeds of 1000Mbps (Megabits per second). Some recent tests performed by Alcatel-Lucent were very promising (here).

However the G.Fast specification isn’t due to be finalised until early 2014 (here) and in order to get the best speeds BT would need to find a way of shortening the copper run between street cabinets and homes (i.e. it works best over very short distances), which is what Fibre-to-the-Distribution-Point (FTTdp) is intended to do (read our FTTdp preview article).

Earlier this year Ofcom suggested that it might be wise for BT to run an FTTdp pilot before its telecoms market review period had ended, although during the summer a spokesperson for BTOpenreach informed ISPreview.co.uk that it didn’t have any formal plans for a trial of FTTdp technology. But this stance appears to have changed.

According to Huawei, BT will now trial G.Fast alongside FTTdp. A few tentative details about the “field trial“, which will be conducted using kit from Huawei Technologies, were revealed during the recent ECOC Exhibition in London (Europe’s largest Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communications).

It’s understood that G.Fast line cards will be deployed in underground distribution points (i.e. these are often installed underneath pavements) at the facility, which Huawei claims could deliver top 1Gbps download speeds over copper runs of up to 100 metres (though the technology can work well up to 250m). Apparently BT’s UK network currently has 4 million distribution points that are said to be suitable for a related FTTdp roll-out.

The development, if successful, might delay the need for a full ultrafast fibre optic (FTTH/P) roll-out to every home, which is something that in the much longer term could become inevitable. But no firm dates for the closed technical trial have been released and it’s unlikely to take place before mid-2014 due to the on-going Vectoring trial, which would need to be completed and then analysed first before proceeding to test G.Fast. Similarly the G.Fast standard must first be finalised.

Tim Whitley, MD of BT’s R&D Division, said:

“The G.FAST trial has the potential to demonstrate how ultrafast bandwidth access may be more efficiently delivered to consumers and businesses. We will be observing the results of the trial with interest to see whether G.FAST technology could play a role in ensuring BT has the best network in the short, medium and long term..”

Mr. Gao Ji, Huawei Chief Strategy Officer (EU), said:

“Copper wires remain an important resource to telecom carriers and are assets that have yet to be fully exploited. By utilising new copper wire technologies, such as Vectoring and G.FAST, carriers can make more efficient use of their resources and quickly implement bandwidth strategies, helping to achieve commercial success. Huawei will continue to invest in copper wire technology and plans to lead further innovations in this area.”

However G.Fast and FTTdp, while more affordable than a national FTTH/P network, would not be a cheap upgrade. On the other hand ISPreview.co.uk is aware of several innovations, some of which we’ll be writing about very soon, that could slash the costs of FTTdp and thus make both upgrades more viable. But ordinary consumers are unlikely to see the end product for several years, assuming it passes all of the tests and that’s often easier said than done.

As a side note we should say that BT has been playing with the preliminary G.Fast spec in limited lab trials for a while, although the field trial will be quite a step up from that.

UPDATE 2:46pm

Added some comments from the official PR.