TDC Denmark trials Alcatel-Lucent's VDSL2 vectoring technology

TDC Denmark on Tuesday began a trial of Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) VDSL2 Vectoring technology as a way to review how it could deliver up to 100 Mbps and beyond on its existing copper plant.

This project is in response to the Danish government's support of the European Union's Digital Agenda target of delivering speeds of 100 Mbps to 70 percent of the country's households by the year 2020.

Like other U.S. and European telcos, namely AT&T (NYSE: T), Telekom Austria (NYSE: TKA), BT (NYSE: BT) and Belgacom, TDC has adopted a dual copper and fiber last mile network strategy that's based on the best economical solution for each area it serves. It is leveraging its existing copper plant in parts of the country where it can rapidly turn up higher speed broadband services, while deploying GPON and point-to-point fiber in areas where it can lay fiber conduit alongside a utility company's electrical Rights of Way (ROW).

By using VDSL2 with vectoring, any wireline operator can deliver higher data speeds over their existing copper plant because the technology can remove interference between the multiple VDSL2 lines in a copper bundle.

TDC said in a press release that once regulatory obstacles are removed, they will be able to theoretically deliver 100 Mbps data rates at distances of up to 400 meters.

Alcatel-Lucent may be hardly alone in delivering a VDSL2 with vectoring on its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) platforms. Other vendors, including Huawei via its SuperMIMO prototype and Genesis Technical Systems, claim they can deliver up to 400 and 700 Mbps over existing copper, respectively.

While this is only a trial, it is important validation for Alcatel-Lucent with yet another large Tier 1 European-based service provider. Besides TDC, the vendor has been conducting trials and deployments of its VDSL2 vectoring technology with Telekom Austria and Belgacom.

Alcatel-Lucent continues to do well in the VDSL2 race. According to Dell'Oro, all of the major VDSL2 players, including ADTRAN (Nasdaq: ADTN), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Huawei drove up VDSL equipment revenues 15 percent in Q2 2012.

For more:
- see the release

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