Not content with becoming the first broadband ISP and network builder to deploy Nokia’s 25G PON technology commercially in the UK in 2023 (here), Ogi has now revealed that they’re planning to be “one of the first trialists” to harness the company’s 50G PON technology in 2025 too.
Just to recap. The network operator has so far covered a total of 100,000 premises RFS (4th Jan 2024) with their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network – most of them residential – in Wales up to the end of 2023. In addition, they’re home to over 20,000 customers (13th May 2024), which is up from 10,000 on 4th Jan 2024.
Until recently Ogi’s infrastructure had been deployed using dual optic combination line cards, which enabled them to support both XGS-PON and GPON (common full fibre standards) simultaneously on any port of the Optical Line Terminal (OLT), which also enables them to be fairly flexible when it comes to future upgrades.
This was followed, at the end of 2022, by the provider’s move to deploy Nokia’s 25G Passive Optical Network (25G PON) fibre technology onto its network, albeit initially aimed squarely at business customers (e.g. those around parts of Cardiff and other areas). This can happily co-exist with GPON and XGS-PON on the same infrastructure (it requires no changes to the outside plant). But it looks like they’re about to go beyond even this.
Justin Leese, Ogi’s Chief Technology and Operations Officer, said:
“After our successful launch of 25GPON on the Ogi network last year, looking forward to being one of the first trialists on 50G PON next year – with Nokia for service providers announcing their product today at Connected Britain. Bringing world leading connectivity to Wales once again.”
We should point out that Ogi won’t be the only FTTP network operator to adopt 50G PON technology. The CEO of Netomnia (YouFibre, Brsk), Jeremy Chelot, revealed at the start of 2024 (here) that they were also planning to deploy the solution, albeit via ADTRAN’s technologies rather than Nokia. Such moves tend to be all about future proofing and efficient network delivery, although they can also lead to some shockingly fast broadband packages (e.g. YouFibre already offers a 7-8Gbps service).
The usual catch in all this is the difficulty of actually being able to harness all that speed when online. Most internet services still seem to struggle to harness more than 1000Mbps, assuming they can do even that, while the multi-gigabit domain remains more of a luxury (Why Buying Gigabit Broadband Doesn’t Always Deliver 1Gbps). But technological evolution rarely waits for the slowest users.