Vuma and Huawei Jointly Launch Industry’s First 50G PON Technology in South Africa

This month, Vuma, South Africa’s largest fiber to home (FTTH) provider, announced the integration of next-generation fiber technology and innovation into the South African market through its latest collaboration with Huawei.
As the next generation PON technology defined by ITU-T, 50G PON effectively supports 10Gbps Everywhere. It provides high-density symmetric 50G PON to meet the growing bandwidth demand in future campus, industrial interconnection, enterprise, and home scenarios. It integrates GPON, 10G PON, and 50G PON into one port, allowing on-demand service upgrades.
Vuma has launched a 50G PON feature through this partnership, which is significantly higher than the existing 2.5Gbps feature currently in use. After the testing phase, the deployment of this first to market technology will enable Vuma customers to achieve higher upload and download fiber broadband speeds through the provider’s FTTH network, meeting the growing demand for faster, higher capacity, and more stable connectivity from consumers.

Vuma’s investment in testing and launching new Huawei PON technology is futuristic, which will enable us to achieve greater capacity in the last mile of fiber and increase speed according to customer requirements – approximately 20 times faster than currently deployed capabilities, “said Francois Swart, Vuma’s Chief Technology Officer.
At the launch event of “Huawei Eco Connect Sub-Saharan Africa 2023”, Richard Jin, president of Huawei’s optical business product line, delivered a keynote speech, referring to Huawei’s vision for the region, that is, to enable everyone to get a real high-speed connection.
Richard Jin said, “Fiber optic broadband will greatly promote innovation and employment in countries. However, the penetration rate of fixed broadband (FBB) in most African countries is far below the global average. This is both a challenge and an opportunity.”
Kim Jin, Vice President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, stated: “Together with our top customer Vuma, we have launched the best technology in the African market, which fully demonstrates the shared values of Huawei and Vuma to achieve innovation and empowerment through connectivity. Through this partnership, our goal is very similar to Vuma’s goal, which is to support increasing the connectivity of all South Africans and bridge the gap in access to high-quality digital services.”