G.fast is designed to provide super-fast downloads up to 250 meters, thus eliminating the cost of installing fiber between the distribution point and individual homes.
The first phase of the ITU standard approval process took place during the meeting in Geneva. ITU-T Recommendation G.9700, which specifies methods for minimizing the risk of G.fast equipment interfering with broadcasting services such as FM radio, lays the groundwork for G.fast's approval in early 2014.
G.fast access is expected to be provided by service providers offering fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services, enabling flexible upload and download speeds to support bandwidth-intensive applications such as over-the-air TV movies, downloading high-resolution video and photo libraries to cloud-based storage, and high-definition video communication.
Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General: "Since the beginning of the Web, people have had access to the vast resource that is the Internet through ITU standards. I congratulate our members for continuing to demonstrate their strong leadership in developing these specifications, which bring broadband to our homes with ever-increasing speeds and efficiencies."
The work on G.fast has attracted the active participation of a large number of major service providers, chip manufacturers, and system vendors.
A key feature of G.fast is that it will enable self-installation by consumers, without the need for a technician. For service providers, self-installation eliminates the expense of sending technicians to consumers' homes, thus also improving the speed at which they can deploy new services. Consumers will benefit from not having to be home for a technician visit.
“G.fast is an important standard for service providers worldwide,” said Tom Starr, Chair of Working Group 1 of ITU-T Study Group 15, which oversees the G.fast effort. “Service providers will be able to deliver fiber performance faster and more affordably than with any other approach.”
“G.fast offers fiber speed with the ease of ADSL2 installation,” said Les Brown, Associate Rapporteur of the G.fast Expert Group.
The new G.fast standard is being coordinated using the Broadband Forum’s system architecture project, Fibre to the Distribution Point (FTTdp). The ITU-T and the Broadband Forum have been working closely together to ensure that G.fast solutions can be quickly integrated into FTTdp installations.
Video interview with Frank van der Putten, Rapporteur, Question 4, Study Group 15: youtu.be/bXg_vRaFBpg.
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