Boosting Internet speeds without fiber-optics

[Peter7]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/10/10/broadband.tv.reut/index.html

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A group of technology and telecoms companies, including Spanish giant Telefonica, joined forces on Tuesday to boost the Internet speeds of copper telephone wires to almost equal that of fiber-optic cable.

"It will allow telecoms companies to provide high-bandwidth services cost-effectively ... rather than replacing all copper wires with fibre-optics up to the subscriber premises," said Zvika Weinshtock, vice president marketing for broadband access at Israeli telecoms equipment maker ECI Telecom.

The new technology, dubbed Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM), promises speeds to rival those of fibre-optic networks, much faster than currently available on broadband -- DSL.

"DSM is expected to have a significant impact on the market, as the DSL industry is looking for solutions beyond VDSL2 to increase subscriber broadband rates (speeds)," the new consortium said in a statement.

We're still waiting for ADSL2 over here nevermind VDSL2.

Here's a quick definition in terms of up/downstream speeds (distance from CO is a contributing factor):

ADSL2 - in the best situation, be as high as 12 Mbit/s downstream and 3.5 Mbit/s upstream depending on line quality (for spans of less than 2.5 km).

VDSL - The maximum available bit rates are achieved at a range of about 300 meters(1000 ft), which allows for 26 Mbit/s symmetric access or up to 52Mbit/s down / 12Mbit/s up asymmetric access.

VDSL2 - deteriorates quickly from a theoretical maximum of 250 Mbit/s at 'source' to 100 Mbit/s at 0.5 km and 50 Mbit/s at 1 km, but degrades at a much slower rate from there, and still outperforms VDSL. Starting from 1,6 km its performance is equal to ADSL2+.