Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet has this week become the latest provider to launch a range of residential “ultrafast broadband” packages using hybrid fibre G.fast technology, which can offer average download speeds of 145Mbps (30Mbps upload) or 300Mbps (50Mbps upload).
The new Openreach (BT) based G.fast(ITU G.9700/9701) technology works in a similar way to the existing 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service. In this setup a fibre optic cable is run to your local PCP Street Cabinet, which is then fitted with an extension “pod” to house the new G.fast line cards. After that the service reaches your home via an existing copper cable.
At present only a small number of providers have introduced packages based off this technology (BT, TalkTalk, AAISP, Freeola, Cerberus Networks etc.), which is partly because it’s currently only available to more than 1.1 million UK premises. Zen also appear to be offering G.fast alongside their “full fibre” Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) products via a similar set of features and prices.
Each of Zen’s new packages come with truly unlimited usage, 12 month contract, a “FREE” AVM FRITZ!Box 3490 router, Static IP address, phone line rental (price fixed until 2020), UK-based support and a £55 one-off activation charge is also payable (managed engineer install). The ISP further pledges that your prices will be fixed for the full contract term.
We should point out that Openreach’s current deployment plan envisages G.fast reaching a national UK coverage of around 5.7 million premises and FTTP delivering to 3 million premises, both by 2020, although their FTTP network could eventually reach 10 million by c.2025.
The biggest difficulty with G.fast is that you’ll only get the best speeds when within around a couple of hundred metres from your local PCP cabinet. The service is also known to have a fault threshold of 100Mbps and that’s not surprising because it’s being marketed as an “ultrafast broadband” technology (i.e. download speeds of greater than 100Mbps).