Fast Internet Now Possible Through Old Phones Lines With New Technology

For most people with Internet access (in the UK at least) options are pretty much limited to either slow telephone line internet, such as ADSL, or to fast fibre optic internet such as 100Mb broadband. Of course there is also the option of using mobile internet supplied by huge WiFi masts or by network carriers like Telefonica, Verizon or AT&T. However, for those looking for a home internet connection if you do not have a fibre optic connection then up until now your options for getting fast internet have been hugely limited.

Alcatel-Lucent have devised a solution which allows old telephone lines to be used to provide fast internet connection of up to 1.1 Gigabits per second, with a low of 500 mbps. Considering even most people on fibre optic do not get such speeds this new technology is clearly capable of delivering the same speeds. The new standard from Alcatel-Lucent is called G.fast and it uses existing telephone lines, broadens the frequency and reduces interference to deliver these high speeds.

According to Technology Review the new G.fast standard decays over distance but works best over the average distance from a telephone pole to a house. The new technology means that fibre optic only needs to be installed on mainlines and the individual connections to houses can be done by existing telephone line infrastructure. This is expected to speed up the process of rolling out high speed internet to homes. The technology is expected to be approved by the International Telecommunications Union by 2015.

Image courtesy of The Next Web