Sckipio says its G.fast chips enable telcos to provide the FCC’s goal of 25 Mbps service to at least 10 million US underserved households. It says it has proven that with recent tests that equipment with its chips achieved 300 Mbps at a distance of 500 meters from US homes, by using two bonded phone lines. The vast majority of US homes have two sets of twisted pairs installed although they are not always connected, so it is easy to upgrade to bonded connections, although many US homes already use both for things like fax machines or a second phone line.
Sckipio also expects forthcoming improvements to the G.fast standard, which will allow it to use 212 MHz of spectrum, due out later this year, will enable G.fast to achieve over 500 Mbps at that distance. This will enable service providers to bring G.fast into single family dwelling markets.
G.fast supports the concept of a low-cost distribution point unit that connects to the service provider via fiber optics, but delivers the last distance over existing copper wires. The distribution point unit is small and low-powered and can be hung on a pole or placed underground and services dozens of customers in a distance of 500 meters or less.
Sckipio’s technology is currently in field trial with BT in gear from both Adtran and Zinwell. Arris, Calix, Suttle, PTI, ZyXel and others also make G.fast gear using Sckipio’s G.fast chips.
“Fiber to the home is a great goal, but simply too expensive to rationally justify on a per-user basis,” said David Baum, CEO of Sckipio Technologies. “Sckipio’s G.fast leverages fiber infrastructure, but eliminates the added cost needed to bring fiber all the way to the home. By switching to copper at 500 meters or closer, over $5,000 per subscriber of unnecessary expenses could be eliminated.”
This first ran in Rider Research’s Online Reporter.