Australia’s nbn, which is rolling out a national broadband network, announced that it is preparing to introduce gigabit access speeds for eligible homes and businesses in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, as well as the Gold Coast in Queensland.
nbn noted that the announcement follows trials of DOCSIS 3.1 technology on its hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network, which previously served to deliver Telstra’s pay TV cable services.
The company stated that during lab trials of DOCSIS 3.1 technology conducted in Melbourne, it achieved downstream speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, similar to the highest speed currently available to retail service providers using the nbn FTTP network. The trials delivered upstream speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s, which is more than double the current highest rate of 40 Mbit/s upload retail speed available via HFC retail services over the nbn network.
nbn noted that it will be amongst the first operators outside of the U.S. to commercially launch DOCSIS 3.1-based services as an upgrade for its HFC network, enabling the delivery of Gigabit and higher downstream wholesale speeds over the network.
nbn is planning to conduct further lab testing of DOCSIS 3.1 technology in August, prior to launching field trials in December this year, with a commercial launch of DOCSIS 3.1 services expected in 2018.
- Earlier this year, nbn announced that it had achieved gigabit transmission speeds during a fixed wireless technology demonstration conducted in Ballarat, Victoria. For the trial, nbn used 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum as part of its effort to use a range of technology to meet both current and future bandwidth demands within its multi-technology mix (MTM) strategy. The fixed wireless demonstration achieved 1.1 Gbit/s downstream and 165 Mbit/s upstream speeds utilising carrier aggregation technology to combine seven carriers in the 3.4 GHz band and four carriers in the 2.3 GHz band. As part of the demonstration nbn also delivered trial peak downstream/upstream speeds of 400/55 Mbit/s, 250/50 Mbit/s and 100/40 Mbit/s using a range of carriers in the 2.3 and 3.4GHz spectrum bands. The trial involved technology partner Ericsson, NetComm Wireless and Qualcomm.
- nbn also announced it had partnered with Nokia to trial NG-PON2 technology potentially able to support symmetrical speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s in FTTP networks. nbn noted at the time that NG-PON2 could also be used to enhance services in FTTB and fibre-to-the-kerb networks when combined with technology such as G.fast and XG.FAST, while also providing additional capacity over fibre supporting HFC and fixed wireless networks.
- During trials in Melbourne, NG-PON2 delivered bandwidth of up to 102 Gbit/s in the lab, based on 40 Gbit/s symmetrical speed using TWDM-PON technology, 10 Gbit/s symmetrical on XGS-PON and a further 2.5 Gbit/s with current GPON technology.
