We tested the record 8Gb optical internet from T-Mobil
The download and upload speeds are impressive, but the service has a lot of snags
So far it only works in Olomouc and the problem is also with the hardware
At the beginning of October, T-Mobile announced a big news in the field of optical Internet. In Olomouc, he became the first operator in the Czech Republic to operate a network with a connection speed of 8 Gb/s, i.e. 8000 Mb/s, for commercial use. This is 4-8x more than what its competitors have offered so far throughout the Czech Republic, it is a huge technological shift. Thanks to the local demo in Prague, we were also able to try out this internet in practice.
Record internet for 4 thousand crowns
The largest operator in the Czech Republic by number of clients boasts more than 1 million customers with an optical network. So he decided to take a big step and after converting his access network to the XGS-PON standard, he was the first in the Czech Republic to offer optical internet with a theoretical speed of up to 10 Gb/s.
T-Mobile’s tariff as part of the T Fiber offer will cost CZK 3,999 per month and is currently only available in the Olomouc part of the city. You can check availability at your address on the operator’s website. However, as part of transparency towards customers, T-Mobile advertises the Internet as a “symmetrical connection of 8 Gb/s”, in short, it is not possible to squeeze more out of the standard at the moment.
We were able to test the fast 8Gb internet for ourselves at the T-Mobil headquarters in Roztyle, Prague. The test center there tests the highest available optics on supplied modems with a single 10Gb input and Wi-Fi 6. This is very limiting for use on multiple devices – and especially for achieving full 8Gb speed.
The problem is in the hardware
It is therefore necessary to use a suitable 10Gb router, but it is not yet commercially available on the Czech market. For example, the demo was performed on the Asus RT-AX89X “spider” router with the best possible result of around 3 Gb/s. This router costs almost 10,000 crowns.
Practically only the Zyxel EX7501 B0 router has proven itself, with which it is possible to measure the full speed of 7.5-8 Gb/s during download as well as upload. However, this router cannot be purchased in the Czech Republic, the T-Mobile test center borrowed it from the Dutch T-Mobile. In the future, Zyxel plans to offer similar routers in the T-Mobile e-shop, but for now there is speculation about this.
One of the few suitable 10Gb Zyxel EX7501 B0 routers, but it is not available in the Czech Republic
It must be recognized that with a suitable router and a suitable network card it is indeed possible to achieve the mentioned top results. Speaking of the network card, it will also be necessary to purchase one for commercial use. In modern computers, it is most often with a speed of 1 Gb/s. However, it is possible to purchase an external hub with 10Gb speed, but it can be an item of several thousand.
However, a lot depends on the correct hardware constellation, otherwise obstacles may appear that will more or less limit the speed. As part of the demo, we were also able to test the speed on the journalist’s MacBook Air with the M1 chip. After connecting an external network card and the aforementioned exclusive Zyxel router, the maximum speed was still only around 6 Gb/s.
What is 8 Gb/s for?
Ultimately, if you cover all the expenses associated with the purchase of hard-to-find hardware and the monthly tariff from the operator, you can have optical Internet at home with a symmetrical speed of 8 Gb/s. But what can such an internet actually be used for in practice?
So far, T-Mobile only advertises it as a residential network. It does not offer any special business care, any big configuration or security options for large companies. It is therefore purely a service for households, or small “residential” companies and start-ups.
Due to the unusually high upload rate, such a tariff can be used, for example, by video content creators who edit large files (for example, 4K videos) for someone remotely and then upload them to cloud systems. Creativity when using such a fast internet is, of course, up to the customers themselves. Thank God, the operator is still looking for interested parties, the service does not have a single customer at the moment.
If you are interested in the practical capabilities of the 8Gb Internet, you can, for example, download a two-hour film in 8K resolution (76 GB) in 1 minute and 16 seconds, upload an hour-long video in Full HD resolution (1.4 GB) to YouTube in 1 second, or download Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 235 GB in less than 4 minutes.
Author of the article
Jakub Fischer
Journalist, fan of modern technology, summer months and Asian food. I like Lynch movies, Pollock paintings, french house and Arsenal football club. In my spare time, I play PlayStation and go jogging.
2023-10-13 14:30:00
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