News
U.S. telco connects 44 apartment blocks not covered by its FTTP deployment.
CenturyLink this week claimed to have completed the largest G.fast deployment in North America, connecting 44 apartment blocks in Platteville, Wisconsin.
The U.S. telco said the premises in question were left out when it deployed fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) in the city in 2015. By using G.fast, these locations are now able to connect at speeds of up to 500 Mbps and above.
"We saw a great opportunity to use existing copper assets in our Platteville network to bring ultra-fast Internet speeds to customers who live in areas that typically don’t have access to these new broadband technologies delivering higher speeds," said CenturyLink CTO Aamir Hussain, in a statement on Monday.
"With the ongoing evolution towards unicast, OTT streaming video services, including 4KTV, demand for ultra-broadband connectivity continues to escalate. To this end, CenturyLink is leveraging extensive fibre network build-outs in conjunction with key endpoint technologies, with G.fast providing de facto FTTH (fibre-to-the-home) services over existing copper access lines," added Erik Keith, principal analyst of broadband networks and multiplay at Current Analysis.
CenturyLink said it is evaluating other locations where G.fast may be the most suitable means of delivering ultrafast broadband, such as fibre-fed multi-tenant units (MTUs), and neighbourhoods covered by fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC).
"We take a fibre-first approach when deploying faster broadband speeds but enabling G.fast over copper infrastructure helps us reduce costs, speed time to market and effectively connect our customers to the power of the digital world in areas where fibre deployment is less feasible," Hussain said.
