Ethernet in the First Mile provides dedicated high speed Internet connectivity at a much lower cost than a traditional fibre based leased line service. This cost reduction is achieved by delivering the service across regular copper cables.

The ‘First Mile’ refers to the communication network that runs over the copper cabling from the customers premises to the ‘last provider’ owned node. This node might be in a street cabinet, equipment in the local telephone exchange or another point-of-presence held by the provider.

The EFM technology provides new specifications designed to allow the industry standard Ethernet protocol (as used in the local area network of most companies) to run long distances across standard telephone copper cables. The service typically allows symmetrical bandwidth of up to 35Mbs to be achieved by bonding multiple pairs of copper cables.

The bonding of copper pairs has the benefit of providing a highly resilient service. If a copper pair fails, the remaining pairs continue to delivery connectivity with no down time but at a reduced bandwidth. For example, assuming a service is being provided across four copper pairs. With the loss of one pair, 75% of the bandwidth is retained. Full service returns when the failed pair is restored.

The copper cables are dedicated to the transmission of digital data (they are not provisioned to carry analogue voice calls as is the case with regular broadband). This allows increased data throughput to be achieved.