Boosting Internet speeds without fiber-optics

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- A group of technology and telecoms companies, including Spanish giant Telefonica, joined forces on Tuesday to boost the Internet speeds of copper telephone wires to almost equal that of fiber-optic cable.

"It will allow telecoms companies to provide high-bandwidth services cost-effectively ... rather than replacing all copper wires with fibre-optics up to the subscriber premises," said Zvika Weinshtock, vice president marketing for broadband access at Israeli telecoms equipment maker ECI Telecom.

The new technology, dubbed Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM), promises speeds to rival those of fibre-optic networks, much faster than currently available on broadband -- DSL.

Telecoms operators in Europe and the United States have pledged to invest tens of billions of euros (dollars) by extending their fiber optic core network closer to homes and boost the speed of their networks.

Faster speeds are needed, because even with the latest DSL broadband technology, called VDSL2, operators struggle to offer high quality television and video-on-demand services.