Broadband on Copper?

There is a lot of copper wire around which has provided the old telephone service we know and understand. I still have a classic old copper based phone, use it in the office all the time, good quality voice and secure, unless there is some Government tap. But that is another story.

Now people have been eschewing copper as being too slow but Shannon's Theorem really does not say that and I recall meetings at the old Bellcore some 30 years ago where they discussed Mbps speeds. Now BT in the UK has Gbps speeds.

Total Telecom reports:

BT on Tuesday came out fighting in favour of copper, revealing it has reached connection speeds topping 5 Gbps using XG.fast technology. The tests were carried out in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent at the U.K. incumbent's Adastral Park R&D centre in Suffolk. It achieved aggregate speeds of 5.6 Gbps over 35 metres of BT cable, a new record for full-duplex data transmission over a standard single line, according to the telco. At more than 100 metres, the speed dropped substantially, albeit to a still impressive 1.8 Gbps. BT said this is significant because most U.K. homes are within 100 metres of their nearest distribution point.

 Theoretically one can use this existing infrastructure with a wireless backbone to get those Gbps speeds to homes out in the "no where" lands. You do not need the millions that New York is proposing, you can do it now with what is there. Just get the consumer to buy the modem!