Super-fast 100 Mbps Broadband as early as 2006
Broadband Internet access via TV cables could reach 100 megabits per second as early as next year--50 times faster than the average broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes, a Finnish company said Wednesday.
Similar data transmission speeds are possible over fiber networks, but these cost much more for the operators to build. "This is a cost-efficient technology, as we use the cable TV networks which are already in place," Jukka Rinnevaara, chief executive of small-cap Finnish broadband equipment maker Teleste, told Reuters.
Teleste, whose rivals include big U.S. firms Scientific Atlanta and Cisco Systems, said that early next year it will bring to the market its Ethernet-to-the-home product, which will give consumers access to speeds of up to 100mbps.
The sector is closely followed by big technology companies. Last month, Sweden's Ericsson offered $51 million to buy Norwegian company Axxessit, which makes broadband Ethernet access equipment for telecommunications operators. To accelerate the transmission speed Teleste fits Ethernet--a cheap and standard transport method for Internet data over broadband networks--into cable television networks.
