Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Network operator Openreach (BT) recently published the first edition of a new Suppliers Trial Information Note (STIN) for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband using 10Gbps capable XGS-PON technology, which interestingly appeared to hint at a series of new speed tiers. This includes symmetric speeds of 2.5Gbps and 3.3Gbps (Gigabits per second).
Openreach’s full fibre broadband network currently still uses older Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology, which places limitations on how fast they can go before capacity becomes an issue. For example, GPON supports a capacity on each trunk line of up to 2.5Gbps downstream and 1.24Gbps upstream, which needs to be shared between several premises.
As a result, Openreach’s fastest asymmetric consumer broadband product via FTTP currently maxes out at a download speed of 1.8Gbps, with uploads of 120Mbps. In addition, those rural areas covered by their Project Gigabit (Type C) roll-out contracts with the government can also access symmetric speeds, albeit only up to 1Gbps and this is more of a business product (expensive).
However, the operator’s network is currently adopting a ComboPON approach, which in the future will make it easier for them to upgrade premises to newer fibre technologies without needing to change all the existing optical modems (ONTs) inside homes (e.g. they’d be able to use either GPON or XGS-PON based ONTs, whatever the situation requires).
Back in February 2025 ISPreview reported that Openreach planned to trial XGS-PON sometime in 2026 (here), which is a significantly faster, more cost-effective and power efficient technology (the ‘X’ stands for 10, the ‘G’ for Gigabits’ and the ‘S’ for symmetric speed). But until now there have been no further updates, at least none that we were able to spot.
The good news is that some of our readers (here) have spotted a new STIN from Openreach – STIN 1007 (XGS-PON for FTTP), which quietly popped up sometime in April 2025. This is a technical document that sets out how the new XGS-PON technology will work within Openreach’s network, but it also gives us a pretty good idea of what product speeds they plan to offer in the future.
In particular, there are several speed tiers beyond the current top 1.8Gbps one, including 2.5Gbps and 3.3Gbps, with various different options for upload speed. Details on service pricing and product details for the trial will no doubt follow in the near future, but this offers a useful sneak peek of what we can expect. Getting the pricing and availability right will be key if Openreach are to compete with the altnets, many of which have been using XGS-PON for years.
