10Gbps broadband is coming to UK households by end of 2019

broadband
(Image Credit: Shutterstock) (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Rural ISP Truespeed has announced that it will start offering an active Ethernet network linking all its customers to a dedicated 10Gbps connection by the end of 2019. 

The company revealed that it has completed a small pilot deployment using a 10Gbps fibre Ethernet switch from Danish vendor DKT Comega.

This would most probably be the DKT 79751 next generation gateway (essentially a router without wireless connectivity) which incorporates a 10G WAN, one 10G and two 1G LAN ports.

Data center speeds

Any users looking to connect would need a device with at least one 10Gbps port to make the most out of the connection. While there are plenty of 10G switches, they are still quite expensive compared to standard Gigabit ones. 

A spokesperson for the company was not able to confirm how much the service will cost, or how many households will get connected to this superfast broadband before the end of the year. 

However Josef Karthauser, CTO of Truespeed, said in a statement to TechRadar Pro that “it is only a matter of time" until this technology becomes standard.

"In the data centre, 10G interfaces are already being rapidly replaced with 25G, and 100G; data centre switches are only adding 1G interfaces for backwards compatibility. consumers deserve the same data-centric approach," he added. 

"Which is why we are building a data carrier network on which we can run broadband services, rather than using telco-grade equipment and approaches which come with heavy compromises such as network contention.”

Black Fibre is the only other ISP to offer 10Gbps in the UK, although that is limited to the Manhattan Loft Gardens apartment building in Stratford, London, for the eye-watering sum of £199 per month. However those willing to pay will see the speed benefits, as the more widely available  Virgin Media’s 500Mbps (one-twentieth of the rated speed) business broadband costs £62 per month.

TrueSpeed also offers a free full fibre broadband service for life to schools, village halls and other community hubs passed by its network although its nationwide coverage is still far behind mainstream service providers.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.