TOT taps Zaram and MaxLinear for new G.hn gigabit broadband service

Thailand state-owned fixed line operator TOT has launched a new gigabit broadband internet service that is powered by G.hn gear supplied by South Korea’s Zaram Technology using chipsets from MaxLinear.

G.hn is an ITU-T networking standard that delivers data rates up to 2 Gbps and can operate over a variety of wired media – legacy copper, coaxial cables, power lines and plastic optical fiber – which enables service providers to deliver gigabit broadband services without having to replace existing telephone lines.

“The high cost of bringing optical fiber to each home has been one of the main factors delaying the adoption of high-speed broadband services in many markets,” said Mongkol Prakobtong, Senior Director of Commercial and Real Estate Sales Group at TOT. “Thanks to the flexibility and robustness provided by G.hn technology, TOT can now offer the fastest broadband service in Thailand, at a much lower cost per user than traditional FTTH deployments,”

The first commercial users of the new ‘Super Speed by Giga Wire’ service are businesses located in several malls in Bangkok including Siam Center in Bangkok, Siam Paragon and Platinum Fashion Mall in Bangkok. The first residential users are located in a Supalai Condominium at Kaset Navamin. TOT plans to extend the service to the entire country starting in Q2 2018.

The G.hn solution selected by TOT comprises two devices:

• The Zaram L12224XH G.hn access multiplexer (GAM), a 24-port G.hn Wave-2 switch installed in each MDU or commercial building and is connected between the optical fiber WAN connection and the telephones wires inside the building.
• The Zaram L36104HPW G.hn network terminal (GNT), a compact G.hn Wave-2 customer premises equipment installed in each subscriber’s home that provides a Wi-Fi access point and multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The ZARAM G.hn equipment leverages MaxLinear’s G.hn Wave-2 chips with G.now software and VectorBoost technology, enabling multiple GAMs to be stacked together and providing options to deploy the service in large apartment buildings with hundreds of subscribers.