Telekom Austria (NYSE: TKA) has set an ambitious goal of reaching 40 percent of its country's homes with broadband by 2013 via its GigaNet initiative with a mix of Fiber to the Curb (FTTC) and Fiber to the exchange (VDSL@CO).
Set on leveraging as much of its existing copper network as it can, A1 Telekom Austria believes it can get an even more bandwidth by leveraging VDSL bonding, vectoring and "Phantom Mode" techniques.
In partnership with vendor Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), A1 Telekom Austria demonstrated how the combination of these technologies can deliver downstream speed up to 390 Mbps at 400 meters.
Each of these technologies provides their own benefits to increase the rate and reach of existing copper. By preventing interference or crosstalk between copper lines, vectoring, for example, can increase downstream rates. Likewise, Phantom Mode DSL, which uses a virtual "phantom" channel on top of two physical transmission lines to expand DSL capacity.
Although copper-based DSL technologies are a large part of its GigaNet initiative, they are complementary with Telekom Austria's ongoing Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiative in select cities.
"Complementing our fiber infrastructure and continuously increasing wireless capacities, we want to get the most out of our existing copper-based network," said Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, General Manager A1 Telekom Austria in a release. "This is how we can provide our customers with the highest bandwidths in the shortest timeframe, especially in regions where fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) build-outs have not yet been planned."
For more:
- see the release
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