Gfast Stampede Starts in 2019 – Report

In 2019, Gfast revenue will grow almost 600% as operators avail themselves of a broader selection of appropriate chipsets, systems and port units, according to a Dell'Oro Group report.

The research, published August 7, nominates 2019 as the "year of Gfast."

"Operators are holding off on massive deployments throughout their networks until they have more hands-on time with amendment 3 chipsets and systems, which will be available in early 2018. Furthermore, many operators that wish to deploy Gfast into larger buildings via FTTB architectures are waiting for 32 or larger port units to be tested more thoroughly," said Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell'Oro Group in a release. "Momentum will continue through at least the rest of our forecast horizon as we anticipate that Gfast revenue will account for over a third of the overall DSL market by 2021."

That does not mean operators aren't implementing Gfast today. Many Tier 1 service providers across the world are adopting Gfast, adding this technology to their fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) designs in order to expedite customer deployment, dramatically reduce rollout (and customer) costs, and deliver gigabit speeds to support new ultra-broadband services.

BT leads the market with its plan to serve up to 10 million homes and businesses by 2020, according to a report written by UBB2020 sister company Ovum Ltd. for Australia's nbn. By 2021, Gfast will support almost 29 million subscribers -- or 3% of the global fixed broadband market, according to Ovum.

Just last week British Internet service provider Cerberus Networks began testing out BT Openreach's Gfast solution. BT and ADTRAN began partnering on large-scale trials in January 2016, pilots that delivered the accelerated deployment, performance and latency speeds and economic benefits the British operator needed. (See UK ISP Trials BT Openreach's Gfast.)

"Providing fiber to every home or business in a given community can be a logistical and financial challenge. Rather than relying on fiber for the entire network, G.fast solutions such as ADTRAN's utilize existing copper assets for the last step of the journey," said Mike Galvin, BT managing director of service, strategy & operations in a release when the companies unveiled the partnership. "This allows us to provide the ultra-fast broadband that customers demand, while reducing the time and cost of running fiber all the way to the premises.”

Likewise, Deutsche Telekom and ADTRAN are lab testing the next-generation Gfast standard 212MHz and coordinated dynamic time allocation (cDTA); once proven, up to 50% of DT subscribers will be able to get the high-speed broadband service almost instantaneously, Kurt Raaflaub, global marketing manager at ADTRAN, told UBB2020. (See DT, ADTRAN Lab Test Super-Speedy G.fast )

Three months ago, Frontier Communications disclosed its plans to leverage Gfast technologies from Calix in order to use the last few hundred meters of copper in multi-dwelling units (MDUs), CEO Daniel McCarthy said. For its part, last spring CenturyLink deployed Gfast across 44 MDUs in Wisconsin, a future-proof approach that will allow the cable operator to later implement XG-FAST or other faster versions of Gfast as they become available. (See Frontier Uses G.fast for MDU Broadband.)

Related posts:

• What Is the Future Shape of the Broadband Industry?
• G.fast Enters Middle East
• Broadband Forum Creates G.fast Certification Program

— Alison Diana, Editor, UBB2020. Follow us on Twitter @UBB2020 or @alisoncdiana.