It looks like the fabled VDSL2+ is not smoke and mirrors after all - Eftel is pushing to launch high speed broadband speeds of 100MBit, which is certain to be the fastest broadband available in Australia if all goes to plan with this year's launch.
Note: This story has been updated here.
Eftel, the Western Australian based ISP - is turning to the VDSL2+ product as a way of creating a competitive advantage among the current crop of ISPs still offering much slower ADSL2+ services.
PC Authority spoke to Eftel's sales and marketing manager Rick Swancott, who told us that the VDSL2+ product will be rolled out nationally in metro areas. "It's a tested technology, and will be unique to Australia".
At the moment, Eftel is in the middle of a ratification process through Telstra exchanges. This includes the installation of MSLANs (Multi Server Access Nodes) in order to prepare the way for VDSL2+ capability.
While VDSL2+ sounds great, the promised speeds of 100MBps might be a little optimistic. "We were suspecting VDSL2+ speeds to be similar to ADSL. We did tests that show speeds around 50 - 70mbit, 500 metres from the exchange and then this will drop substantially the further you move it," Swancott said.
Exchange location will be crucial to data speeds. Swancott added, "Theoretically, you can get 100BNps at the exchange, but it obviously degragates [sic] fairly quickly, the longer you get away from the exchange".
Swancott also shot a poison arrow into competitive naked DSL products, claiming they are " . . . not a major step forward for consumers. It's just a regular DSL service that is a VOIP service over the top. It's not the be all and end all of broadband." Ironically, Swancott admitted that Eftel is also looking into offering naked DSL services in the longer future. "It's on the roadmap," he said.
Eftel is aiming for the VDSL2+ product to be released around the second quarter of this year and interested customers can join up by registering their interest at the Eftel website.
Eftel is also working on extended reach ADSL2+ technologies, that will allow customers further away from exchanges the ability to receive ADSL2+ connections. Some of these customers, Swancottt says, "may never of had access to even regular ADSL before."
Eftel is still testing speeds at distances over 7km from the exchange and is aiming for a launch of extended ADSL2+ as soon as next month. Internode is also planning to launch a similar extended reach product called 'ADSL2 Annex L', in the coming months.
Update: Not surprisingly, the huge potential speeds of VDSL2+ are raising eyebrows. We've been contacted by readers questioning the claimed speeds of VDSL2+, with one reader arguing "100Mbps is the maximum available under the standard - when the VDSL2 standard is ratified for use in Australia it's likely to have a maximum allowable speed of around 45Mbps."