Ericsson shows off 500Mbps broadband

Ericsson has demoed a working broadband line that can reach a staggering 500Mbps using ordinary copper cables and Vectorized VDSL2 technology.These speeds were previously thought to be only possible on fibre, but it was claimed that the VDSL2-based technology could offer such speeds on existing copper lines and existing infrastructure.

This would allow operators to enhance fibre deployments, giving high speed services to residential and enterprise users, simply by using existing telco ‘last mile’ copper from the local exchange to the business or household.This compares very nicely with the odd 2Mbps that the average UK broadband line painfully achieves. Ericsson bonded six copper lines over a distance of 500m to achieve this record, which means that the effective speed per line was around 83.3Mbps. ADSL2+ theoretical limit currently stands at 24Mbps and Virgin Media's own 50Mbps cable connection has just been launched. The equipment manufacturer used its own proprietary Crosstalk cancellation technology to reduce the impact of noise from the copper cables.

According to experts, Ericsson's take on VDSL2 will be ideal for fibre extensions and could be used to combine fibre-optical and last-mile copper depending on the environmental circumstances.This is arguably good news in these testing economic times as Ericsson's technology would allow companies like BT to extend current infrastructure and recycle the existing network. But don't expect such speeds to happen overnight.However, there is a catch. DSL connections transmit data over a twisted pair of copper cables, which degrades the speed of the connection over time – called crosstalk. To get over this, Ericsson has developed crosstalk cancellation technology that it calls vectorised VDSL2, reducing the noise from other lines.
The demonstration bundled six lines together, creating an aggregate overall speed of 500mbps. However according to sister site PC PRO, to maintain the quality of the signal Ericsson had to reduce the line length to 500m.

Based around Vectorized VDSL2 technology, the system is a Nintendo bit faster than the 2Mbps that most British punters have to put up with. To be fair, Ericsson joined six copper lines over 500m to manage this speed, but it still means that each wire was sending around 83 Mbps.The company announced that it would be rolling out 4G technology in partnership with TeliaSonera in Stockholm as early as 2010.

Chief technology officer Hakan Eriksson said that the new technology made it possible to use existing copper networks as a backhaul for radio base stations.This could accelerate the rollout of HSPA and Long Term Evolution (LTE)- based high-speed mobile broadband services.VDSL2 speeds will be particularly useful for delivering HDTV and Video on Demand content to thousands of customers without extensive investments and with a much quicker time to market.

ADSL2+ can just manage 24Mbps and Virgin Media's own cable connection tops out at 50Mbps and both of these need crosstalk software to reduce the noise on the copper cables.

However if BT ever adopted it, it could save a fortune because it would not have to replace existing copper cables with expensive fibre optics.Ericsson has already said that it is working on a mobile broadband connection that could in theory reach 42Mbps download and 22Mbps upload respectively. The tests were carried out in Spain last month by Vodafone and showed that 3G HSPA+MIMO technology is mature enough for such speeds. However we are more excited about the possibility of downloading at 50Mbps on a cable line.

wow,Probably very useful for running the last mile, if the reality agrees with the hype.Now if MTNL can try to get that in India they dont have to rewire every house anymore

Good news. If the telcos had six pair to most dwelling units, this would be exciting. Alas, that's hardly the case. Most dwelling units are served with two pair, rarely three or four. The operators and/or building owners, e.g., BT, would have to place additional or replacement cables to the units.