Aspects of a method and system for an extended range copper transceiver are provided. Reducing the communication rate provided by multi-rate physical (PHY) layer operations in an Ethernet transceiver may extend the range of the Ethernet transceiver over twisted-pair copper cabling from a standard connection length. The Ethernet transceiver may support up to 1 Gbps or up to 10 Gbps transmission rate over copper cabling. The multi-rate PHY layer architecture in the Ethernet transceiver may support signal-processing operations, such as echo cancellation and/or equalization, which may be applied to the reduced communication rate to enable range extension. The reduced communication rate may be achieved by reducing the symbol rate provided by the multi-rate PHY layer operations. Reducing the communication rate may also enable utilizing greater insertion loss cabling for a standard connection length.