G.fast field trials underway says ADTRAN

ADTRAN Inc. (NASDAQ:ADTN) announced last week at the Broadband World Forum that its G.fast broadband access network technology is in field trials with service providers in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. The trials involve the ADTRAN 500G Series, "a portfolio of fiber-to-the-distribution point (FTTdp) environmentally sealed platforms," in the words of an ADTRAN press release.

G.fast promises to support data rates as high as 1-Gbps over copper networks, likely over runs of 100 m or less with the initial generation of technology. ADTRAN has positioned the technology as complementary to fiber to the home (FTTH), either as a stepping stone toward all-fiber broadband access or as a technique for applications where connecting customers with fiber is impossible (watch the video "ADTRAN makes the case for VDSL2, G.fast alongside FTTH" for more).

"G.fast FTTdp is an ideal solution to offer ultrafast broadband speeds to our customers, reducing installation impacts and costs of FTTH," said Andrea Calvi, responsible for IP Networks, at Telecom Italia. "We were pleased to have had ADTRAN demonstrate a real-world FTTdp solution based on the G.fast standard."

"The breadth and geographical reach of our G.fast trials demonstrates the market's appetite for this technology, as operators look to push toward gigabit speeds in evolutionary steps with rapid ROI," added Dr. Eduard Scheiterer, senior vice president and managing director, international markets for ADTRAN. "We expect many of these progressive operators to begin finalizing their G.fast rollout strategies and procedures in readiness for the general availability of commercial G.fast solutions in 2015."

For more information on FTTx equipment and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer's Guide.