ADSL2+ can now go to 3Mbps upstream

Stuart Corner
Friday, 17 November 2006 07:26

Business IT - Technology

The ADSL2+ Annex M standard, use of which was pioneered in a trial earlier this year by ISP Internode, has been approved by Australia's telecoms industry standards body, the ACIF division of the Communications Alliance and registered by the ACMA, paving the way for the introduction of ADSL2+ services with uplink speeds of up to 3Mbps.

The ADSL2+ standard, as applied in Australia, gives a maximum of 24Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream in what is known as Annex A mode. When Internode announced plans for the trial in May,  CEO Simon Hackett said it had "the potential to deliver massive benefits for businesses by making 'virtual workplaces" much easier and more affordable to set up and maintain".

The ACMA rules governing what DSL variants can be used in the Australian network were developed by ACIF in conjunction with Telstra and were designed to ensure that all DSL services would be able to operate satisfactorily in the multipair cables used in Telstra's access network without interfering with each other.

Internode confirmed in July  that it would go ahead with the trial. Hackett said: "Internode has negotiated exclusive permission from Telstra to operate an ACIF supported limited trial of the Annex M deployment mode...in the period running up to the full ratification of the use of Annex M mode in Australia."

Internode was allowed to operate a limited number of services on any exchange in which it had ADSL2+ DSLAMs installed. Trials were conducted with a number of hand-picked customers.