Chinese telecommunications solutions firm, Huawei, has used SuperMIMO technology and "four twisted pairs" (i.e. technically four phone lines bonded together; 175Mbps each) to boost the maximum broadband download speed of DSL technology to a staggering 700Mbps (Megabits per second) over 400 meters! That's quite a jump above BT's current UK best of 40Mbps via FTTC, which uses VDSL2 tech over a single phone line.

The prototype solution was demonstrated in Hong Kong earlier this week and goes well beyond some of the most advanced DSL technologies currently available. For example, existing VDSL2 delivers 40Mbps in the UK with BT (via FTTC) but could theoretically reach speeds of up to 100Mbps over very short distances.

FTTC delivers a fast fibre optic cable to BT's street level cabinets, while the remaining connection (between cabinets and homes) is done using VDSL2 (similar to current ADSL broadband but faster over short distances) via existing copper cable. BT FTTC speeds are expected to be boosted to reach 'up to' 60Mbps in the near future.

In April 2010 Alcatel-Lucent's research arm, Bell Labs, also achieved a broadband DSL download speed of 300Mbps at identical distances of up to 400 meters (or 100Mbps at 1km) over existing copper line infrastructure using DSL Phantom Mode (here). However this method only bonded two telephone lines together (i.e. 150Mbps each).


Huawei's new technology claims to methodically address crosstalk among multiple twisted pairs and can thus dramatically increase DSL bandwidth by 75%. It's solution is intended to be used in networks exactly like the FTTC service that BT are currently rolling out to 66% of the country by 2015. BT has an extensive contract with Huawei and could one day take advantage of this.

However most consumers would probably be more interested in how Huawei's technology performs in the real world and whether it can overcome Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). This term is used to describe how effectively a system is able to function in an electromagnetic environment without introducing EM disturbances that interfere with the operation of other electrical products.

According to BT, even Alcatel-Lucent's recent DSL Phantom Mode test still had problems to overcome with this and there remains a significant gap between "lab" demonstrations and practical implementation. It is not clear whether Huawei has overcome this problem, although we suspect they have not. In any case such developments won't reach the end-user for a good few years yet.