CYBERSPACE – According to a Finnish broadband equipment maker, consumer cable broadband Internet access could reach 100 megabits per second as early as 2006, approximately 50 times faster than the average speeds now offered to homes with cable TV.Jukka Rinnevaara, chief executive of Teleste, told Reuters that while similar transmission speeds are possible over fiber networks, such networks cost much more for operators to build out. “This is a cost efficient technology, as we use the cable TV networks that are already in place,” Rinnevaara said.

The implication of such high speed user-end broadband access for adult internet companies is clear; it would afford the opportunity to provide content of unprecedented quality to the market.

An overseas competitor of American firms like Cisco Systems and Scientific Atlanta, Teleste stated that it will bring its Ethernet-to-the-home product to the market in early 2006, offering surfers access to speeds of up to 100mbps.

Field trials that Teleste has run in conjunction with TV service provider Essent (based in the Netherlands) has not yet reached the top speeds Teleste expects most homes will need in the near future. “Based on our research, 30 megabits per second is the absolute minimum in future homes,” said Pekka Rissanen, a Teleste executive, at a recent press conference. Rissanen said that just one TV program would take 10-20 megabits per second on its own.

According to Rissanen, the cost of establishing the Ethernet-to-home technology will range from $60 to $240.