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Openreach — the infrastructure arm of BT, which manages the network of copper landlines and full-fibre broadband that connects to 99% of homes and businesses nationwide — has teamed up with Nokia to trial a “revolutionary” new technology that aims to supercharge download speeds.
Sluggish broadband speeds will no longer be an issue with this never-before-seen system that's capable of delivering download speeds 20x faster than the fastest services currently available in the UK.
As it stands, EE offers some of the fastest full-fibre broadband packages, with maximum speeds topping out at 1.6Gbps. BT-owned EE became the first nationwide broadband supplier to launch a wireless router with Wi-Fi 7 built-in to take advantage of these superior speeds.
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It might not be the most affordable broadband package around ...but the Busiest Home Bundle from EE more than makes up for that with raw speed. The BT-owned brand offers download speeds of 1.6Gbps, that is speedy enough to download a high-definition (HD) feature-length film in under 40 seconds. To maximise those speeds, EE includes a Wi-Fi 7 router with the latest wireless technologies at no extra cost
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But that could look like dial-up internet compared with the "hyper-fast" download speeds promised by this emerging technology. Openreach and Nokia conducted a test from a residential property in Ipswich, which the companies said highlighted the potential for future services for homes and businesses.
During the trial, the household broadband connection was able to unlock download speeds of 41.9Gbps — that's 26x faster than the speediest connection available from EE. It's also roughly 60x faster than the average home broadband speed in the UK, which stands around 69Mbps.
What would this mean for you? For starters, downloading a high-definition movie would be a complete breeze with a 50Gbps connection.
If you want to download a feature-length film over a typical 100Mbps connection, it takes around 7 minutes to download a 5GB film. If you pay for a speedier 1Gbps connection, that drops to 40 seconds.
But increase that to a maxed-out 50Gbps connection, it would take less than a second! This means you could download entire seasons of TV shows, large software updates, or even multiple movies almost instantly.
Existing fibre-optic infrastructure was used in the first trail of the new technology in Ipswich
OPENREACH PRESS OFFICE
Openreach and Nokia were able to reach upload speeds of 20.6Gbps during the trial too. The experiment was run over a section of Openreach's existing full-fibre infrastructure, which is already available to more than 17 million premises across the UK, demonstrating that the current fibre network is extremely future-proofed.
With the demand for higher speeds and greater bandwidth continuing to steadily grow — broadband usage across the UK reached record levels after increasing by more than 10% last year — Openreach believes this trial shows that current infrastructure will be able to scale with Britain's unsatiable appetite for better broadband.
Trevor Linney, Openreach’s director of Network Technology, said: “As the country’s largest full-fibre provider, it’s crucial that we continue to research, innovate and evolve our network to meet our customers’ demands for decades to come.
“The full-fibre network we’re building today is a platform for the UK’s economic, social and environmental prosperity, and this test proves we can keep upgrading the speeds and services our customers experience over that network long into the future."
Following more trials, Openreach and Nokia could leverage the technoplogy to deploy 10Gbps, 25Gbps, and 50Gbps capable broadband speeds to customers across the UK. Popular brands like BT, EE, Sky Broadband, Plusnet, Vodafone, and TalkTalk all rely on full-fibre cables owned and operated by Openreach.
If this new technology comes online, customers with any of these brands could unlock the "hyper-fast" download speeds glimpsed in the early tests in Ipswich.
Openreach, which is owned by BT, operates the largest network of broadband cables across the UK. These full-fibre and copper cables are used by some of the biggest brands, including Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, and more GETTY IMAGES LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
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Sandy Motley, president of Nokia Fixed Networks, said: “This trial shows the incredible power of fibre to increase network capacity in an efficient way. As a futureproof, energy-efficient technology, fibre is used by operators like Openreach to connect everything to multi-gigabit services.
“Our platform provides them with a full range of technologies and services that can be delivered over their existing fibre network.”
Additional Reporting By Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent
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