Viewpoint
On August 14, 2024, 200 industry leaders and experts from around the world attended the Asia-Pacific F5.5G All-Optical Summit themed “F5.5G All-Optical Access, Premium Transmission for Intelligence” at the QSNCC conference center in Bangkok, Thailand. In the Asia-Pacific region, the optical industry is booming, which promotes the popularization and quality improvement of broadband. With policy support and industry collaboration, China has accumulated rich experience from early fiber reconstruction to FTTR and 10 Gbps network evolution. The application of all-optical bearer technologies is achieving closed-loop business for users, operators, and society, and helping build a new engine for digital economy. The success stories of the F5G technology demonstrate how continuous fiber coverage and network upgrade promote business growth and become the cornerstone of digital transformation. The Asia-Pacific region is embracing F5.5G, bringing new growth opportunities for operators and promoting the construction of all-optical smart homes and premium networks.
APAC F5.5G Commercial Launch And Premium Home Broadband Initiative released at the summit
Saneh Saiwong, Principal Engineering Expert of Thailand National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) office, pointed out in his opening speech that fiber networks have become the “third largest infrastructure” for urban construction. He stressed that NBTC plans to increase broadband penetration to 80% by 2025. Through projects such as Giga City, NBTC is promoting innovation and cooperation, bridging the digital divide, and helping Thailand achieve economic growth and full connectivity.
Bob Chen, President of Huawei’s Optical Business Product Line, delivered a keynote speech entitled “F5.5G All-Optical Access and Premium Transmission Make Intelligence Ubiquitous”. He released the F5.5G All-Optical Network Solution for Asia Pacific and pointed out that: “With the growing maturity of AI models, terminals, and applications, AI has entered an era of full popularization. In the intelligent era, networks must be ready first. Huawei advocates that all industry players work together to construct F5.5G all-optical networks, promote gigabit popularization and 10 Gbps take-off, and build premium transmission networks, jointly winning opportunities in the AI era and helping Asia Pacific build a new engine for digital economy.”
Facing the unbalanced development of optical networks in the Asia-Pacific region and the future development trend, multiple industry experts shared their opinions on optical network construction. Tao Jing, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific ICT Marketing & Solution Sales Dept, emphasized that a higher fiber penetration not only bridges the digital divide, but also boosts the development of the digital economy. He pointed out that the next decade will be the decade of AI. As premium network assurance for AI, all-optical networks will change our way of production, life, and social governance.
Martin Creaner, Director General of the World Broadband Association (WBBA), called on governments to introduce national broadband policies to accelerate broadband development, optimize fiber network coverage, improve broadband service quality, and bridge the regional digital divide. Dang Meimei, Chief-engineer in the ITSR (Institute of Technology and Standards Research) of CAICT, emphasized that fiber broadband is an important engine that drives operators’ full-service growth and requires policy support and industry collaboration to improve coverage, bandwidth, and user experience. Arik BENAYOUN from the Sales-Partner Dept of nPerf, a world-leading broadband consulting firm, pointed out that gigabit optical networks represented by 10G PON and FTTR can effectively meet gigabit and ultra-gigabit service experience requirements and are ramping up in Asia Pacific.
Eric Arianto, Deputy Chief Technology & information Officer of Link Net, a leading telecom service provider from Indonesia, shared their successful experience in implementing fast and economical network construction and intelligent O&M by deploying the end-to-end DQ ODN solution, thereby improving go-to-market efficiency and reducing construction costs. Chotedhanin Piwaranatthakul, broadband strategic ecosystem and partnership management manager of AIS Thailand 3BB Fibre3, said that AIS 3BB Fibre3 continuously explores innovations in smart acceleration of broadband services, ultra-gigabit broadband (FTTR), and digital platforms, to comply with the AIS 3BB Fibre3 brand proposition of “I Know it before you feel it” to improve customer experience and better meet their needs.
In addition, Mr. Phongsira Prungsin, head of Thailand True Online Acquisition Department, introduced their smart home strategy and plan to unleash the potential of smart home services through AI. K.M. Tariquzzaman, Chief Technology Officer of Bangladesh Summit Communications Limited, shared their efforts to integrate the latest 800G technology on the all-optical platform, with the goal of providing high-quality multimedia services to every household in Bangladesh.
The home broadband market in the Asia-Pacific region has huge potential. Although the fiber coverage rate is increasing, the average penetration rate is only 35%, and many households have not enjoyed the convenience of the fiber Internet. To achieve digital equality, countries need to strengthen fiber infrastructure construction and promote more extensive coverage. This will narrow the digital divide, support the development of smart homes and online education, stimulate the potential of the digital economy, and drive social progress.
At the summit, leading operators in the Asia-Pacific region and optical industry partners jointly launched the premium home broadband construction initiative, aiming to accelerate the full coverage of optical networks and promote the popularization of gigabit broadband. The initiative officially announced the launch of the 10 Gbps era, with the aims of creating premium broadband experience for users, achieving digital equality, and boosting the economic growth.
The summit is not only a milestone in the communications field, but also points out a direction for optical network construction in the Asia-Pacific region—Deploy 10G PON technologies to achieve extensive gigabit coverage in areas with weak infrastructure, and use FTTR technologies to build all-optical smart homes and enterprises. The F5.5G 10 Gbps era is coming. 50G PON can be used to build a 10 Gbps intelligent access network. All-optical switching OXC enables OTN to move to edges and builds a 1 ms low-latency metro network. The 400G ultra-high-speed technology and 3D Mesh architecture can be used to build a 3D joint computing backbone network, enabling various industries to upgrade to the F5.5G all-optical network era, laying a foundation for the digital economy in the Asia-Pacific region, and accelerating the development of an intelligent world.