The modem, offered by a business broadband provider spun-off from NEC Australia, Nextep, spreads single-pair high-speed DSL (SHDSL) connection across two copper-pair lines.
Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) regulations limit bandwidth capacity that SDSL standard (two-way) services can carry over a given distance to prevent interference with Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) connections. ACIF regulations allow SDSL service to carry 2Mbps over a distance of 1.8km; 1.5Mbps over 2.4km; 1 Mbps over 2.6km and 512Kbps for any distance further than that.
The new modem effectively doubles the capacity that can be carried over any given distance specified by ACIF between the customer presence and the exchange.
Nextep managing director, Michael Johannessen, claims the real breakthrough is that the modem exponentially increase the coverage area in which its SDSL service can compete with fibre services.
Nextep, which resells its capacity through a number of service provision channels, including Pacific Internet, claims the new modems could decrease the number of instances in which its partners would have to opt to push fibre to a customer presence.
Johanessen said that the average SHDSL customer currently pays around AU$600 and AU$700 to cover their monthly bandwidth usage patterns and line leasing costs. Taking on the high capacity modem would double their costs but Nextep believes the modem will close the gap between business fibre and DSL offerings.
Nextep leases fibre capacity from Telstra network, but has built its D-SLAM modem racks on the carriers' exchanges. Nextep currently has 92 D-SLAM modems, each capable of serving an estimated 3000 small and medium enterprises located in Geelong and Wollongong and all state capitals except Hobart.
