Taiwan Begins Worlds First Commercial Rollout of G.fast Broadband

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) in Taiwan has this week officially begun the world’s first commercial deployment of next generation G.fast broadband technology, which is the same service that BT are currently trialling (here) for launch in the UK during 2016/17.

The slightly muddled press release (here), which doesn’t seem able to tell hybrid-fibre / copper G.fast technology apart from a pure fibre optic connection method like Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and also appears unsure of its timescales, should ultimately reach 8.4 million premises (Taiwanese homes).

Mu-Piao Shih, President of CHT, said:

“We have made great strides in proactively improving our broadband network service in recent years, and we are pleased to become the first G.fast commercial broadband service provider in the world.

With Alcatel-Lucent’s G.fast technology we will be well equipped to launch an ultra high-speed network service toward the end of this year and offer our customers the highest broadband service experience, thereby solidifying our leadership in the fiber optics broadband service market ranging from 100Mbps to 1Gbps.”

Otherwise the deployment seems to be taking a similar approach to BT, except for the fact that CHT are using kit from Alcatel-Lucent, while BT appears to be testing kit from all three of ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei.

ALU’s FTTx Hardware for the CHT Deployment

o 7368 Intelligent Service Access Manager (ISAM) Optical Network Terminals (ONTs)

o 7368 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) CPE with integrated reverse power

o 5520 Access Management System – to accelerate last mile fibre-to-the-home ultra-broadband connectivity, while taking advantage of reduced costs and complexity.

Unfortunately we don’t get a lot of technical detail in the official PR, although ISPreview.co.uk has put a few additional questions to ALU and received the following responses.

ALU and CHT’s G.fast Deployment (ISPr Q&A)

Can you tell us anything interesting about the deployment itself, such as what speeds are being offered (upload/download)?

CHT is targeting 300 and 500Mbps downstream speed tiers for this service. Unfortunately they have not released any specifics on upload speeds they plan to target with G.fast

What sort of distances (copper length) will the deployment be using (BT in the UK seems to be looking at a limit of 350 metres, but others may set it lower to boost average speeds etc.)?

CHT will primarily be looking at using G.fast at distances of 250 meters or less in mostly FTTB scenarios

And how is it being installed (e.g. mostly via street cabinets or FTTdp/B etc.)?

CHT will use G.fast as part of their overall FTTx strategy with FTTdp/ FTTB. Due to the large number of multi-dwelling units (MDUs) in Taiwan, CHT faces the challenge of delivering ultra-broadband to these subscribers living in buildings with existing copper infrastructure. CHT will use their GPON network in a FTTB scenario and once in the building, use G.fast to feed the individual living units.

In FTT-front-door, CHT will use our ONT which provides a single G.fast connection to the living unit. The ONT is placed in a equipment room or closet where it connects to the GPON network. G.fast is then used to connect to the living unit over the existing copper in the building

Also, what about roll-out costs and time-scale?

Unfortunately I can’t comment on the roll out costs. For time-scale, CHT did say they are looking to deploy by Q4 2015 and provide fast broadband to tens of thousands of homes in Taiwan within two years.

BT’s current trial is similarly capping the top G.fast performance at around 300Mbps, although this is expected to reach 500Mbps within the next ten years. BT has also previously claimed to have delivered 300Mbps at a distance of 350 metres (here), but realistically both approaches are very similar.

We hope to hear the first feedback from BT’s trials next month, but in the meantime Taiwan seems to be pressing ahead. Mind you there’s something to be said for not being the first to rush into a commercial deployment, not least in terms of hardware cost and maturity.