(Telecompaper) Ikanos Communications announced that it has successfully demonstrated in OEM lab trials data rates in excess of 1 Gbps at a distance of 100m over existing hybrid fibre-copper networks in Japan and Korea. A first in the industry, the demonstration offers the possibility of upgrading speeds ten-fold on existing VDSL connections. Ikanos said the test did not impact existing VDSL data rates. In addition, the VDSL fallback feature will ensure backwards compatibility with deployed CPE. Ikanos' technology is optimised to co-exist with the VDSL 30a profile widely deployed in Japan and Korea, which helped Ikanos first roll-out 100 Mbps in the countries. Japan and Korea together count over 6 million VDSL subscribers.