A power boost for copper

The capabilities of today´s digital subscriber line (DSL) technology are being stretched to the limit. Residential and business subscribers need more and more bandwidth, especially for applications such as interactive personalised TV, high definition TV (HDTV) and video-on-demand, which are growing in popularity. Ultimately the answer may lie in running fibre out to the building, or at least to the kerb, to deliver virtually unlimited bandwidth. In the meantime, most operators must look for new cost-effective ways of exploiting their existing copper infrastructure to deliver the speeds that subscribers need. The very high bitrate DSL 2 standard (VDSL2) offers looks set to fill the gap neatly