G.fast tech to give Canadian telcos’ Internet speeds a boost

A new technology that allows telecoms to get speeds of hundreds of gigabits through existing copper loops is making headway in Canada, where companies are testing it out and deployment is likely to begin later this year. Large and small Internet service providers (ISPs) say they’re looking at g.fast technology, which gives telcos a leg up in the competition with cablecos by allowing them to offer faster speeds without installing new fibre-to-the-home (FFTH) infrastructure. Canadian companies are likely to begin deploying it by the end of this year and into 2017, according to analyst Teresa Mastrangelo, of the Virginia-based market analysis and consulting company Broadbandtrends LLC, which recently surveyed telecoms around the world about their g.fast plans. “We do expect to see some fairly aggressive acceleration towards the end of 2016 and definitely into 2017,” she said in a phone interview. Currently, most operators are conducting trials on the technology, she said, with only a “handful” having commercial deployments worldwide. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies, approved a standard for g.fast in late 2014. In Canada, telecoms are testing the technology, Mastrangelo said, though she couldn’t specify the companies because the survey was conducted on a confidential basis. “I think what you’ll see with g.fast with operators is a bit of a surgical deployment, so it’s something that can help them solve a business dilemma in a market quickly,” she said. “It may not be the end game for them in that market, but it’ll buy them some time… It allows them to compete with these cable operators more quickly than if they wait until that fibre-to-the-home infrastructure is in place.” While telecoms operating on cable infrastructure can achieve FTTH-like speeds by using the DOCSIS protocol on their existing network, telecoms that began as incumbent phone companies have had to invest in FTTH to get close to gig speeds. “It helps them deal with the competitive environment that they’re facing, especially from cable operators who have been very aggressive, and Canada is a great example ,” Mastrangelo said, explaining that a lot of Canadian cable operators have “invested a fair amount of money in upgrading their cable plant, their DOCSIS systems, to offer faster and faster speeds.” “It just gives telcos a great way to compete effectively in a timely fashion,” she said. She added: “But I don’t think the telcos are necessarily saying ‘this is all we’re going to do.’ I think they see this as an interim step that will kind of hold them over, for lack of a better description, until fibre-to-the-home is deployed in their markets over time.” The main appeal of the technology is that it allows companies to reuse existing copper infrastructure, she said. “Depending on the loop length, if they have a fairly short loop length, then they can actually offer speeds at near a gigabit of broadband. So they can basically offer fibre-to-the-home-like speeds over a copper infrastructure,” Mastrangelo said. G.fast is also faster than building out FTTH, which can take years, compared to days or weeks for g.fast. “So there’s a time-to-market advantage,” she said. It’s also much cheaper than FTTH build-outs, at a tenth of the cost, Mastrangelo added. One of the disadvantages of g.fast, though, is the loop length has to be short in order to achieve high speeds. That means it’s not a solution to the problem of slow Internet speeds in rural areas. “It’s great for suburban, obviously urban. I think the number-one use case that we see is for multi-dwelling units, so apartment buildings, for instance,” Mastrangelo noted. Earlier this year, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada associate deputy minister Kelly Gillis was scheduled to meet with BCE Inc. to talk about g.fast, according to documents obtained by the Wire Report under Access to Information legislation. The meeting was set to respond to questions Innovation Canada asked Bell about the technology several months earlier, the document said. According to federal government’s lobbyist communication reports, Gillis interacted with Bell representatives in March and again in May. The Feb. 22 document outlining advice to Gillis ahead of the meeting with Bell executives said that “Canadian telephone incumbents have focused on Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and signalled less interest in G.fast relative to European carriers.” It added: “Bell is reportedly evaluating its potential and may use it as a complement to FTTH in certain cases. Since G.fast still requires fibre to be very close to the customer, it is much more likely to be used in urban or suburban areas rather than rural.” Bell spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis declined to comment on Bell’s g.fast plans in an email, stating the company “couldn’t discuss any possible plans for the technology for competitive reasons.” Telus Corp. spokeswoman Luiza Staniec said an email the company plans “to make use of g.fast technology in the near future, which has the benefit of expanding copper wireline speeds.” She added: “We're simultaneously making significant investments in our fibre optic network.” Distributel Communications Ltd. CEO Matt Stein, who is also the spokesman for the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), said in a phone interview that Distributel is looking at the technology, especially in areas with multi-unit buildings or neighborhoods where dwellings are in close proximity. “The same is true, I’d say to the best of my knowledge, right across CNOC. All the various CNOC members that are building in those kinds of environments are either looking at or have looked at g.fast,” he said. Stein noted the technology “really does work well if you’ve got an existing copper plant” and are looking to offer gigabit speeds or speeds in the hundreds of megabits. “It really is just about pushing the limits of what you can do with copper,” he added. Stein said that one key advantage of a g.fast rollout is that it can be deployed with less physical disruption than FTTH, such as drilling and breaking walls. “G.fast, on the other hand, you’re going to… put the equipment in the basement and feed the whole building with that,” he said, “So really, in the case of g.fast, it saves a lot of time and energy and effort in how you build out that infrastructure.” But at the same time, he added, it’s not a replacement for FTTH. “If you’re going to make this big investment, and you’re going to put equipment in and you’re going to go to that building, there’s a point where you know g.fast is only going to get you another big leap, but it’s not a new installation that you’re going to have in there for 20 years,” Stein said. “It will extend the horizon of your copper investment, but g.fast doesn’t take away the need to make the transition to fibre eventually. It just pushes it out.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and reporting and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

G.fast tech to give Canadian telcos’ Internet speeds a boost

News | August 25, 2016

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G.fast tech to give Canadian telcos’ Internet speeds a boost

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