Making Copper 200x Faster

Australia’s News.com.au reports that a local Melbourne PhD student has developed an algorithm that will increase the data throughput speeds on good old fashioned copper wires 200 fold. John Papandriopoulos claims that his approach can produce Internet speeds up to 250 Mbps. By contrast the top speed offered by Verizon’s fiber optic service FIOS is a pokey 30 Mbps.

From News.com.au:

A Melbourne PhD student has developed technology to make broadband internet up to 200 times faster without having to install expensive fibre optic cables.

Harnessing the potential power of telephone lines and DSL broadband, the technology will deliver internet speeds up to 250 megabits per second, compared with current typical speeds of between one and 20 megabits per second.

Dr John Papandriopoulos, who has patent applications for the technology being processed in the US and Australia, won one of Melbourne University’s top academic prizes yesterday, a Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD.

Telephone wiring was poor quality and was not designed for high-speed internet when it was created, Dr Papandriopoulos said.

“Back in the old days, if you picked up the phone you could hear your neighbour’s conversation from cross-talking interference,” he said.

“While that doesn’t happen any more with voice calls, it does with the broadband internet – your telephone line interferes with your neighbours and everyone in your street’s internet.”

Dr Papandriopoulos’ research, which took a year to complete, uses mathematic modelling to reduce the interference that slows down downloading.