It looks like the fabled VDSL2+ is not smoke and mirrors after all - Eftel is pushing to launch high speed broadband speeds of 100MBit, which is certain to be the fastest broadband available in Australia if all goes to plan with this year's launch. Eftel, the Western Australian based ISP - is turning to the VDSL2+ product as a way of creating a competitive advantage among the current crop of ISPs still offering much slower ADSL2+ services.
PCA online spoke to Eftel's sales and marketing manager, Rick Swancott about the facts behind this intriguing new technology and how it might trigger the change needed for the way Australia looks ahead into its Broadband future.
Mr Swancott told PCA that the VDSL 2+ product will be rolled out nationally among metro areas in Australia. "It's a tested technology, and will be unique to Australia". At the moment, Eftel is in the middle of a ratification process through Telstra exchanges. This includes the installation of MSLANs (Multi Server Access Nodes) in order to prepare the way for VDSL2+ capability.
While it sounds great, we are a little skeptical of the promised speeds of 100mbit. It has great potential to be the market leader in broadband technologies if such speeds were practical on the customer side, but obviously exchange location will be paramount to how such speeds are achieved. Swancott added that, "Theoretically, you can get 100mbits at the exchange, but it obviously degrogates fairly quickly, the longer you get away from the exchange".
However, understanding the potential smoke and mirrors game of claiming to have the fastest theoretical broadband speeds, Swancott gave a fairer assessment of VDSL2+ speeds by comparing it more to ADSL2+ , where speeds depend on actual exchange location. "Were suspecting VDSL2+ speeds to be similar to ADSL. We did tests that show speeds around 50 - 70mbit ,500 metres from the exchange and then this will drop substantially the further you move it".
Finally, Mr Swancott shot a poison arrow deep into heart of competitive naked DSL products, claiming it was " . . . not a major step forward for consumers. It's just a regular DSL service that is a VOIP service over the top. It's not the be all and end all of Broadband." Ironically, Swancott admitted that Eftel is also looking into offering naked DSL services in the longer future. "It's on the roadmap", he agreed.
As an interesting extra, Eftel is also working on extended reach ADSL 2+ technologies, that will allow customers further away from exchanges the ability to receive ADSL2+ connections. Were encouraged by this push to encourage greater coverage for potential customers, some of which Swancottt agrees, "may never of had access to even regular ADSL before." Eftel is still testing speeds at distances over 7km from the exchange and is aiming for a launch of this product as soon as next month. Internode is also planning to launch a similar extended reach product called 'ADSL2 Annex L', in the coming months which should be interesting to watch.
Eftel is aiming the VDSL2+ product to be released around the second quarter of this year and interested customers can join up by registering their interest at the Eftel websit
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