BT Says 100 Businesses to Join Swansea 500Mb G.fast Broadband Trial

BT has confirmed that 100 businesses in the city of Swansea (Wales) will benefit when they begin their technically-focused trial of 500Mbps capable G.fast (ITU G.9701) broadband technology in the area this summer.

The trial itself was first unofficially revealed by ISPreview.co.uk last April and you can find a lot more detail in our original article (here). Unlike the two other trials in Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire) and Gosforth (Newcastle), which will both focus on connecting around 2,000 homes to the service, the Swansea test will be conducted on a smaller scale.

The G.fast technology is, on the surface, not dissimilar in its approach to BT’s existing 80Mbps FTTC “fibre broadband” technology. FTTC takes a fibre optic cable from the telephone exchange and pushes it to your local street cabinet, but after that the broadband is delivered into homes over existing copper cables using VDSL technology (FTTC can work with some premises as far away as 2,000 metres from the cabinet, although it prefers sub-400m).

By comparison G.fast uses significantly more radio spectrum (106MHz+ vs just 17MHz for FTTC) and operates over a much shorter final run of copper cable (ideally less than 100 metres), which means that the fibre optic cable has to be taken even closer to homes (usually as far as a small distribution point [FTTdp] that could be built on top of telegraph poles, inside a street cabinet or even put underground).

Mike Galvin, BT’s MD of Strategy and Operations, said:

“BT’s research into ultrafast ‘G.fast’ technology is now moving out of the labs and into the field. Wales is an excellent location to trial cutting-edge new broadband technologies, and we’re delighted that the Welsh Government and The City of Swansea will play such a key role.

This partnership further enables BT to deploy and validate the next generation of multi-media business and consumer communications capabilities – capabilities that will ultimately benefit the entire UK and ensure our communications services remain among the best in the world.”

The Swansea trial will be open to all ISPs and focus on how G.fast can serve Multiple Dwelling Units (blocks of flats) and business premises. We also suspect that they might cap the initial speeds at around 300Mbps (the same speed as their FTTP product), since the plan is to reach up to 500Mbps within the first 10 year commercial deployment cycle.

The commercial roll-out itself is due to begin in 2016/17 and has promised to eventually make download speeds of ‘up to’ 500Mbps available to “most homes” across the United Kingdom, although BT has warned that any attempt by Ofcom to forcibly separate out its Openreach division could damage their future investment plans for the technology.