NBN Co says it has activated its first fibre-to-the-curb (FttC) connection in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg as part of its trials in preparation for further deployment of the technology in its network.
With FttC, fibre runs all the way from the pits of the current telephone network that are located in the street outside every few homes in urban areas. A distribution point unit (DPU) in the pit, powered from one of the connected homes then uses the existing copper pairs to provide broadband using VDSL technology.
NBN Co says that in the trial it achieved speeds of 109Mbps downstream and 44Mbps upstream over a 70-metre copper line that serves the premises.
The Australian company claims to be leading the world in the deployment of FttC technology and says it plans to introduce commercial services in the first half of 2018. It expects to serve an initial one million premises with FttC and estimates the technology will cost around $2900 per premises to deliver, compared to $4400 for FttP.
NBN Co named NetComm Wireless as its DPU supplier in November 2016 and placed its first order for the units, worth $28 million, in February 2017.
