[hexleo]

"speed of 10 Gbps for transmission of data over traditional copper telephone lines" Good news for some places where they still use copper telephone lines connect to the Internet. But in my view, Chinese operators don't like this technology, they more like optical fiber. The first, it's faster than copper telephone and the future copper telephone lines will completely replaced. The second, in countrysides some bad guys steal the copper to sell for money, it's a big problem for operators.

[MAGZine]

Take for example remote/rural communities however. It is enormous investment to run fiber out to these communities. Eventually, the copper will need to be upgraded... In the mean time, this is an excellent stopgap measure.

[hexleo]

In some ways, you are right. In China, some facts prove countryside's copper is often stolen.Chinese operators has a same measure, they call it "Fiber In, Copper Out"(translate for English it's so hard for me), first is improve network speed, second is reduce copper costs due to stolen. They prefer build fiber in countryside, rather than upgraded copper.

[walshemj]

I worked for a consulting enginer in the 80's and our telecom guy said the same about African states use microwave for long links as the copper gets nicked.

[sjtrny]

The thing is this doesn't apply to rural communities. It is very distance limited.