Gfast map
Updated April, 2018
Dark Blue: Firm commitments from incumbent: BT (10M), Belgacom, Australian NBN, Swisscom, Austria, Bezeq Israel, Chunghwa Taiwan, Telus Canada, Telekom South Africa, SK Korea, (U.S.) AT&T, Century, Frontier, Windstream, Belgium, Omantel
Mid Blue: Smaller carriers in Germany, Norway, Finland, Japan
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35b Finally Arrives. KPN Netherlands Requires Broadcom Chips on Both Ends.
- Published: 21 May 2018 21 May 2018
Vplus, better known to the industry as 35b, uses twice the bandwidth of the 17 MHz VDSL for speeds that can reach 200 megabits downstream and 20 megabits upstream. KPN has 600,000 lines ready for sale, the first substantial deployment announced. Apparently, the wholesale cost of the service is 23 euros + VAT. KPN retail adds 8,90 euro for a total of about 32 euro. Other retailers will have slightly different pricing. (I'm working in Google translate but believe I have this right.)
They are limiting the service to customers within 400 meters although the system is designed for 600-800 meters. I assume that choice is based on the results they are finding with the available equipment. They are using Broadcom chips and requiring the home gateway also to use Broadcom.
Deutsche Telekom has several million lines in place, waiting for the engineering ok to start selling them to customers.
Sckipio Raises $10M More For Advanced G.Fast Chips
- Published: 08 May 2018 08 May 2018
G.fast sales should accelerate in 2018, with British Telecom, AT&T, and nbn firmly committed. Megachip, an $800M Japanese company agrees and led Sckipio's new funding round. Sckipio is one of the two industry leaders. Even vendors who had been single-sourced on G.fast chips are now designing systems based around non-U.S. chips.
The U.S. confrontation with ZTE & Huawei is worrying Broadcom customers around the world. Trump is unlikely to invoke sanctions against Nokia-Alcatel, but even Donald's friends say he can be unpredictable. The rumor in the industry is that Alcatel DSLAMs were making their way to Iran through middlemen in the Emirates. I've never confirmed that, but Nokia surely has a contingency plan. Dealings with Iran were the key charges against ZTE.
CTO Rami Verbin is one of the key contributors to G.fast design and standards.
G.fast Amendment 3 Reaches Carriers
- Published: 27 April 2018 27 April 2018
Geoff Burke of Calix writes, "We have A3 solutions in trials at large customers." This is very good news because some customers seem to be waiting for Amendment 3, which doubles spectrum use for speeds up to 2 gigabits. Calix has well over 100 customers, thousands of systems deployed, and tens of thousands of home gateways.
Calix is known for using Sckipio chips, which use dynamic time allocation for higher effective speeds. That allows speeds to often be at 1 gigabit today by devoting more spectrum to either upstream or downstream based on demand.
Analyst Alan Tamboli believes, "Once the higher frequencies (212 MHz) and higher port groupings (i.e., 48-port and 96-port) are successfully tested and trialed, this will change, especially at MDUs."
Luxembourg On the Map
- Published: 14 April 2018 14 April 2018
Full fiber is at 60%; G.fast for some of the remainder. Luxembourg is one of the richest countries on earth. The 560,000 locals have a per capita income of over $100,000. They can afford whatever form of broadband they choose.
The National Post is doing fiber to most homes but has decided to use G.fast in selected apartment buildings to save the cost of running fiber. France Telecom/Orange had similar plans, especially in the older buildings in Paris that don't want to be disturbed. As far as I know, they haven't moved on that.
I hear slews of telcos are using G.fast in selected buildings but very few are announced.
Australia Putting VDSL in G.fast Locations
- Published: 14 April 2018 14 April 2018
Australia's nbn is running fiber close (FTTC/FTTdp) to 1.5M homes, suggesting it would go "to the end of the driveway." G.fast could go well over a gigabit the short distance but fades rapidly after ~250 meters. G.mgfast could carry 4 gig the length of a very long driveway. (50 meters.) VDSL doesn't make sense unless most of your customers are 500 meters or more.
The difference in cost between VDSL 35b (200/40) & G.fast (750/750) works out to less than $2/month unless you are wildly overpaying. nbn is building to G.fast distances. There's no good reason not to deploy. BT has well over a million lines of G.fast DSLAMs deployed, so there is no doubt it works fine.
By December, 15M Passed By 35b Supervectoring Deutsche Telekom
- Published: 26 March 2018 26 March 2018
Some will get 250 megabits down, some 25 megabits. 35b Supervectoring often reaches speeds over 200 megabits by using twice the spectrum, 35 MHz. (Hence the name, 35b, used by most engineers.) DT has been condemned for not delivering the promised speeds and hiding that with "up to" figures. They've now announced that the "up to 250 megabit" 35b homes will get a minimum of 103 meg down.
It was originally promised for ~2015 but the vectoring engine is just reaching reliability. DT had pushed the 35b operational date back to 2019. Höttges in the financial call now says they will turn on 35b in 2018.
Whenever DT turns on the higher speeds, they will quickly reach 15M homes.