Aspects of a method and system for an asymmetric physical (PHY) layer in extended reach Ethernet local area networks (LANs) are provided. Reducing the communication rate provided by an asymmetric Ethernet multi-rate PHY may extend the standard distance over twisted-pair cabling where customer premises equipment (CPE) may be located in the MTU. Downstream and upstream rates may be aggregated evenly or unevenly over each twisted-pair wire in the copper cabling. The asymmetric Ethernet multi-rate PHY 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 asymmetric Ethernet multi-rate PHY. Reducing the communication rate may also enable utilizing cabling with greater insertion loss than those used for a standard connection distance.