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The Chief Technology Officer of major alternative network provider CityFibre, David Tomalin, has provided an update on their plans to upgrade their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband infrastructure to support 50G-PON (50Gbps Passive Optical Network) and then 100G-PON technology in the future.
At present, CityFibre’s network has only just completed its upgrade from slower GPON to XGS-PON (Symmetric 10Gbps PON) technology, which is how they were recently able to launch a 5.5Gbps speed broadband product at wholesale (here) for ISP partners like Sky Broadband to use. But they’ve also previously spoken very broadly about potentially going even faster than 10Gbps in the future – possibly up to 100Gbps (here).
Tomalin now appears to have developed a clearer plan for what network upgrades they’ll deliver over the next 10-15 years. According to what he told TelcoTitans (paywall), the plan is to adopt 50G PON as part of their “next [logical] business evolution” for the timeframe that runs until 2032 (exact timelines remain unknown). Business connections will be the first to benefit from this, followed later by residential customers during the 2030s.
At some point in the mid-2030s they’ll then “possibly” look to upgrade from 50G to 100G-PON, which is partly due to there being a lot of similarities in chip evolution and compatibilities between 100G and 50G. “We can definitely see there is a path to possibly move from 50 to 100 in the mid-2030s. So we’re now looking at that type of evolution,” said Tomalin.
However, it’s important to stress that the future deployment of such upgrades isn’t just about competitive bragging rights over faster speeds. The adoption of something like 50G-PON can also make managing networks and their capacity more cost-effective, particularly as the network fills up with customers.
The only UK network operator to actually deploy 50G PON technology in a live commercial network is currently Netomnia, albeit somewhat of a very limited demand-led service for business customers. But various others like Openreach (here) and ITS Technology (here) have conducted trials of the technology and the latter may go live with real deployments in 2026. CityFibre tends to use York as their city for testing such things, so that’ll be one to watch in future years.
Naturally, there will always be those who find reason to moan about the need for such upgrades (many online services still don’t really benefit from 1Gbps+ speeds). But pushing the boundaries of modern technology is part of what makes an operator exciting (marketing carries power) and as coverage matures then service performance / quality inevitably becomes part of the next competitive battleground, alongside price.
The catch for retail ISPs is that, in order to take advantage of such speeds, they’ll need to continue to invest in more capacity and better equipment (e.g. optical modems / ONT and routers, as well as fresh engineer visits for existing customers). All of that comes with its own costs and complexities. But in any case, CityFibre’s focus over the next few years will be on getting the most out of their 10Gbps capable XGS-PON network and ensuring ISPs are able to benefit from that.