The company says the in-field trial, in Templestowe in outer Melbourne, demonstrates the potential for around 2.5 million homes and businesses that use or are due to be connected to the HFC access network across Australia.

NBN Co says that during the trial, next generation DOCSIS 3.1 technology demonstrated its capability over an expanded spectrum range to support future wholesale speed upgrades using a standard NBN HFC connection box in the home – with the trial providing “new insights to guide future technical development and planning".

A related lab test with DOCSIS 3.1 demonstrated trial upload speeds of 988Mbps, and both trials used the expanded spectrum range inside the coaxial cable that NBN says it will progressively start using as part of the introduction of DOCSIS 3.1 technology.

NBN Co says these latest demonstrations build on an ongoing program to improve customer experience on the HFC network, including technology upgrades and infrastructure improvements geared towards providing an HFC network that delivers “on customer expectations today and into the future”.

NBN chief technology officer Ray Owen said: “This is an important day for NBN. It shows how a specific technology — HFC — is evolving to meet customer demand for greater capacity from their broadband connection over time.

“It’s good news for both residential and business customers using HFC as we have demonstrated both the wholesale download and upload capacity of this technology.

“As we work to complete our network rollout, we’re constantly looking at what’s over the horizon for all of our technology assets and how we can evolve our network as demand grows."