KEY POINTS:
Politicians, industry leaders and cheerleaders for productivity have all been busy pushing the economic benefits of bringing broadband into the nation's homes over new high-speed fibre optic cables.
But the humble copper cabling linking most households to the internet looks set to remain a feature of our national IT infrastructure for some time yet.
Squeezing better broadband speeds and capacity out of copper phone line infrastructure was a popular topic for discussion among the engineers and telecommunications executives attending this week's annual Broadband World Forum in Brussels.
Although New Zealand consumers using a standard copper line-based DSL broadband connection are generally pretty happy if the service delivers speeds of between 2 and 4 megabits per second, talk at the forum was of theoretical speeds up to 80 times faster.
Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer for the fixed access division of global telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent, told the audience at a workshop on next-generation broadband access technologies that by using "dynamic spectrum management" techniques, it was theoretically possible to boost VDSL2 - a "very high rate" incarnation of DSL - to up to 160Mbps.
That kind of speed, however, would be limited to internet subscribers living very close to the exchange and would require expensive technology to enable the required dynamic spectrum management.
New Zealand internet service providers have already begun talking up the local arrival of VDSL, although they are not promising the type of super performance Weldon outlined.
Vodafone said in July it had begun testing VDSL2 at Telecom's Ponsonby phone exchange, one of the exchanges where Vodafone has installed its own broadband network equipment as part of the regulated "unbundling" of Telecom's copper line network.
Vodafone said VDSL2 could deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps and it plans to launch a commercial service using the technology by the end of the year. Orcon - another internet service provider taking advantage of unbundling to install its own equipment in Telecom exchanges - also said in July it was testing VDSL2.
Steve Lowe, chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent's New Zealand business, was in Brussels for the broadband forum and said while a nationwide fibre-optic network would ultimately provide the best broadband solution, technologies such as VDSL2 were a vital "part of the journey" towards improving access speeds.
Alcatel-Lucent, a long-time provider of technology and network services to Telecom, has been promoting the concept that making the most effective use of money and resources to improve the national broadband network should involve a strategy of installing "fibre to the most economic point". This means laying fibre cables where it makes economic sense, but also making ongoing use of the existing copper network, given it is very expensive to replace.
The National Party is promising to spend $1.5 billion on a "fibre-to-the-home" network to reach 75 per cent of households if it becomes the government, while Labour has committed to spending $500 million on broadband infrastructure, including on urban fibre networks.
Lowe said Alcatel-Lucent had held discussions with both parties, but the meetings had been about sharing technical information rather than suggesting how they implement their policies.
"Some government funding and public-private partnerships of some sort are definitely going to speed up and enhance that 'most economic point' getting closer and closer to the residential premise," he said.
Alcatel-Lucent's newly appointed global chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, used the Brussels forum to make his first public speech since starting in the job last month.
While not outlining his plans in the role in any detail, he said broadband had significantly changed the world and would become a major force in the way some countries gained an economic advantage. "I think we will see a heightened interest for differentiations by countries," he said.
"The way you have wired yourself - or wireless-ed yourself - into the new world is an important factor because it allows you to reach out with different business models than we've seen so far."
Verwaayen's arrival in the top role at Alcatel-Lucent may help to further cement the company's relationship with Telecom.
He was CEO of British telco BT from 2002 until earlier this year, so was Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds' former boss when Reynolds was the head of BT's wholesale division. "I think it's a very useful relationship," said Lowe.
"Ben's interested in New Zealand and what's going on in New Zealand."
* Simon Hendery attended the Broadband World Forum as a guest of Alcatel-Lucent.
