nbn, the company overseeing the construction of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN), has achieved downlink speeds of 1Gbps in a lab trial of DOCSIS 3.1 technology conducted in Melbourne. The trial also delivered upstream speeds of 100Mbps – more than double the current top rates of 40Mbps currently available via the NBN’s HFC network. nbn has now said that it is planning further lab testing of DOCSIS 3.1 this August, ahead of in-field trials in December, while it is aiming for a commercial launch in 2018.