Openreach tests out Nokia's 50G PON techOpenreach tests out Nokia's 50G PON tech

It has been trying out 50G PON, an optical networking technology that tops out at symmetric 50 Gbps – five times faster than XGS-PON. It carried out a test over its existing fibre network at a residential property in Ipswich, reaching 41.9 Gbps on the downlink, and 20.6 Gbps on the uplink.

It can't have escaped anyone's attention that Ipswich is also the location of BT's Adastral Park R&D centre. What are the chances this "residential property" happens to be the abode of a nearby BT researcher?

As impressive as this trial is, Openreach is getting a little ahead of itself – after all, it has yet to commercially deploy XGS-PON. This makes it something of a laggard, given CityFibre and Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) both have.

Being the national incumbent and having the largest fibre footprint, it's a different proposition for Openreach, but there's no getting away from the fact that it has been five years since the subject of XGS-PON appeared in an Openreach announcement.

Maybe with this latest trial, Openreach is finally ready to upgrade to symmetric fibre.

"As the country's largest full fibre provider, it's crucial that we continue to research, innovate and evolve our network to meet our customers' demands for decades to come," said Trevor Linney, Openreach's director of network technology.

"The full fibre network we're building today is a platform for the UK's economic, social and environmental prosperity, and this test proves we can keep upgrading the speeds and services our customers experience over that network long into the future," he said. "Today we're deploying XGS-PON ready equipment, and this trial proves we're ready for the next generational leap, as and when it's needed."

Linney's not giving much away when he says XGS-PON "ready", but it suggests that a launch is in the pipeline but not imminent.

The 50G PON equipment used in Openreach's test was supplied by its longstanding partner Nokia, which has conducted one of its semi-regular media blitzes, peppering the wires with a raft of new developments.

Sticking with fixed-line, in addition to this test with Openreach, Nokia has also been providing XGS-PON equipment for Singaporean telco StarHub, which has just completed the nationwide deployment of its 10-Gbps broadband network.

It aligns neatly with the Singapore government's Digital Connectivity Blueprint. Launched in 2023, it aims to upgrade the country's entire digital infrastructure, from networks and middleware, to devices and software. On the networks side, it set a target of boosting domestic broadband capacity to 10 Gbps over the next five years.

The XGS-PON announcement comes not long after Nokia won a deal to help StarHub monetise its APIs.

On the mobile side of things, Nokia has scored a new five-year deal with Orange, one that will see it upgrade the French incumbent's 5G networks in southeastern and western France.

Under the agreement, Nokia will supply O-RAN compliant products from its energy-efficient AirScale portfolio, including baseband, massive MIMO radios, and FDD multiband remote radio heads. It all runs on Nokia's ReefShark processors, and is managed by its MantaRay network management solution. Orange has also agreed to try out various of Nokia's Cloud RAN solutions.

"This new contract extension with Nokia and their industry-leading equipment portfolio will support our pioneering efforts to drive superior customer experience further, reduce our environmental footprint, and make our network as energy efficient as possible," said Orange France CTO Emmanuel Lugagne Delpon.

"We are excited to continue our long-standing partnership with Orange France and contribute positively towards their network performance, sustainability goals, and commitment to net carbon neutrality," added Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia. "Our industry-leading, energy-efficient AirScale portfolio and AI-powered MantaRay network management solution will enhance Orange's network performance and deliver premium connectivity experiences to Orange customers."

Nokia shared all this just a day after it bagged a deal to upgrade the backbone network for the DE-CIX New York Internet exchange.

Nokia began last year on a bit of downer after AT&T partnered with rival Ericsson for its $14 billion Open RAN rollout. However, it ended 2024 with a barnstorming return to revenue growth, and judging by this latest torrent of announcements, this year is already off to a better start than the last one.