10Gbps over a copper telephone line: A new world record set by Bell Labs

The telecommunications masters at Bell Labs have managed to deliver a world record connection speed of 10Gbps (10,000Mbps) over copper wires. Dubbed XG.fast, the new technology could be used to massively extend the life of existing copper wireline networks, offering telecom companies an alternative to laying costly fiber-optic networks to billions of homes that already have a telephone line — but more importantly, it might mean you finally get a serious upgrade from your ~10Mbps ADSL or ~50Mbps VDSL connection.

Bell Labs, now an R&D division of global telecoms giant Alcatel-Lucent, developed XG.fast as an extension of G.fast. G.fast is the successor to VDSL2 — the technology that is used by most FTTC (fiber-to-the-cabinet) installations around the world. Paired with FTTC, VDSL2 offers speeds of up to 150Mbps, G.fast is up to around 1.25Gbps — and XG.fast is from 2Gbps all the way up to 10Gbps ... read more