The Broadband Forum on Tuesday said it is pushing ahead with interoperability testing of G.fast technology and aims to begin certifying the first products during the second half of 2015.

The industry body has selected the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) to conduct the tests.

"Operators have told us that interoperability will be key to the success of G.fast, so we are developing test plans based on their requirements, which UNH-IOL will certify based on those plans," said Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, in a statement.

G.fast uses higher frequencies to enable every DSL sub-channel to carry significantly more data. It is particularly susceptible to crosstalk though, limiting its effectiveness to very short lengths of copper of around 100 metres or less; therefore it has to be deployed in tandem with vectoring.

The Broadband Forum expects technologies like G.fast to play an important role in extending the reach of ultrafast broadband because it can deliver Gigabit speeds without the cost of deploying fibre all the way to the premises.

Operators also see the potential in G.fast, with BT, Telekom Austria and TeliaSonera in particular pushing ahead with trials.

"Our goal is to begin initial testing of G.fast products during the first half of 2015 and deliver the first certifications during the second half of the year," said Lincoln Lavoie, senior engineer of broadband technologies at UNH-IOL.

The announcement came as global fixed broadband connections reached 700.19 million this week, according to research firm Point Topic.

"Our latest data sees another milestone passed with steady growth in most countries," said Point Topic CEO Oliver Johnson. "As we start to figure out how to use what we have, and perhaps more importantly how to coordinate the services and extract the synergies, we'll see more and more positive outcomes in the coming years."