New Life for Twisted-Pair? 500Mbps Over Copper Wiring.

Telecom equipment maker Ericsson says the unthinkable is now the possible: 500Mbps transmission speeds over ordinary copper wiring. Looking at the details, though, it’s not clear that the news will give Verizon (VZ) any reason to rethink its hugely expensive fiber-to-the-home strategy… or that such speeds will be coming to a DSL line near you anytime soon.

DSL, which relies on twisted-pair copper wiring in common usage around the world, suffers from a host of problems as distance increases between the home and the central office with the DSLAM. Crosstalk, the interference that one wire causes on the other wire, increases along with distance, for one thing. Using crosstalk cancellation technology and a short line length of 500m, Ericsson was able to see sustained data transfer rates of just over 0.5Gbps. It’s the latest telecom maker to report the potential for huge speed increases on copper wiring.

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