According to the Dell'Oro Group, G.fast revenue growth is forecast to grow almost 600% in 2019 as operators complete testing and trialing G.fast amendment 3 chipsets and systems. The research house believes 2019 will be the year of G.fast, significantly impacting the future worldwide broadband access market, which includes PON, DSL and cable. G.fast is a twisted-pair telco technology designed to support near-gigabit Internet throughput. Its range is somewhat short at 300 yards or so, and it seems best-suited to fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) and multiple dwelling unit (MDU) applications.
"G.fast is off to a slow start so far, but we think it will ramp in 2019," said Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell'Oro. "Operators are holding off on massive deployments throughout their networks until they have more hands-on time with amendment 3 chipsets and systems, which will be available in early 2018. Furthermore, many operators that wish to deploy G.fast into larger buildings via FTTB architectures are waiting for 32 or larger port units to be tested more thoroughly. Momentum will continue through at least the rest of our forecast horizon as we anticipate that G.fast revenue will account for over a third of the overall DSL market by 2021."
