(Telecompaper) Alcatel-Lucent and Austrian operator A1 announced a trial of G.fast vectoring technology supporting over 1 Gbps on a copper network. The new transmission technology G.fast uses a wide frequency band to achieve very high speeds on copper lines over very short distances. G.fast is intended for typical applications of 500 Mbps at 100 meters or less. Considered a low-cost alternative to deploying fibre directly to the premises, G.fast also addresses the vectoring problem of crosstalk interference between lines, which can reduce the potential speed, Alcatel-Lucent said. G.fast vectoring removes this crosstalk, stabilizes the transmission quality and enables the technology to perform to its full potential. The trial with A1 used a Bell Labs prototype on a single, good-quality cable and achieved a maximum speed of 1.1 Gbps over 70 meters and 800 Mbps over 100 meters. On older unshielded cables, typical of most in-building cabling in Austria, the trial achieved speeds of 500 Mbps over 100 meters on a single line. When a second line was introduced, creating crosstalk between the two, the G.fast speed fell to only 60 Mbps. After enabling vectoring, the crosstalk was removed, and the speed was back up to 500 Mbps over 100m. G.fast is not yet standardized and won't be commercially available for several years.