NetComm Wireless and nbn agreement launched

NetComm Wireless will supply distribution point units (DPUs) to nbn for the fibre to-the-curb (FTTC) network.

nbn is seeking to connect 8 million premises to the nbn network by 2020, and this agreement represents another step towards the deployment of FTTC services.

Full design work will soon commence for the initial areas to be served by the new technology and nbn will be one of the first operators in the world to launch a large-scale FTTC network.

“nbn is delighted to bring NetComm Wireless on board as a technology partner,” said Peter Ryan, nbn chief network engineering officer.

“We have tested FTTC over the past year and we’re confident we can now deploy the technology in areas where it makes better sense from a customer experience, deployment efficiency and cost perspective.”

FTTC works by delivering fibre all the way to the telecom pit outside a premises, where it connects into a DPU that then uses the existing copper line from the pit to the home. This saves the time, cost and complexity of delivering a full fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connection and brings the fibre closer than fibre-to-the-node (FTTN).

“Delivering FTTC will not only allow us to deliver speeds of up to 100/40 Mbps using VDSL but will also allow us to offer even faster speeds in the future with some of the new technologies that are becoming available,” said Ryan.

FTTC will now provide up to 700,000 premises with access to the nbn network. This is an increase on the original estimate of approximately 300,000 homes that are not well suited for FTTN or FTTP as they are located in outer-suburban or semirural areas.

The increase is primarily those premises where Optus had exclusive pay TV services. nbn made this decision for a number of reasons, but essentially the advancement in FTTC technology made it commercially and operationally more attractive for these areas.

Successful trials of FTTC were conducted in Sydney and Melbourne and achieved end-user speeds of up to 100/40 Mbps, using the same VDSL technology that is used in its FTTN and fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) services.

nbn will use current VDSL technology when it launches commercial FTTC services in order to make it simpler for retail service providers (RSPs) to offer services to end-user premises.

FTTC also provides a good platform for nbn to deploy new copper-acceleration technologies such as G.fast and XG.FAST in the future if end-user demand for higher speeds arises.

In addition, as an upgrade to G.fast or XG.FAST requires only a new DPU and modem for the end-user premises, it is likely that nbn will be able to offer end users the ability to upgrade services on-demand.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Stringer Image