Copper cabling could top 70Mbps

A new technology that takes advantage of copper cable binding could be used to boost transmission rates along copper wire to as high as 70Mbps.

According to technology website Stuff, the new technology could be particularly effective in rural areas where laying fibre optic lead technology is often not cost effective.

Telecoms firm Alcatel-Lucent demonstrated the new technology, which exploits the standard twisted pair design of telephone cabling.

Demonstrating the new-found potential of standard copper cabling at its central Wellington exchange in New Zealand, Alcatel-Lucent streamed high definition video content to four televisions using just two 0.4-millimetre cables which were 630 metres long.

Alcatel-Lucent's chief technology officer Martin Sharrock told the news provider that the test was based on a "typical real-world scenario" as the average length of telephone systems' copper cabling is 630 metres.

Mr Sharrock added: "We feel it is possible to achieve 100Mbps with one bonded system."

Reichle & De-Massari recently launched a new Cat6a cable suitable for high-performance network applications, including data centres and data storage facilities.