Orange Plans to Launch XGS-PON in France by the End of 2026

Orange Group stated that it has great ambitions to deploy XGS-PON technology in France as it attempts to keep pace with competitors in the construction and provision of Fiber to Home (FTTP).
Laurent Feuer, Director of Product Marketing for Telecommunications Services at Orange France, stated that by the end of 2024, 30% of the carrier’s domestic customers should be eligible to use XGS-PON. “Our goal is to achieve 100% by the end of 2026,” he said.
For customers, this technology is implemented by the new Orange Livebox 7 launched in October and is compatible with XGS-PON. The new box provides residential users with up to 5 Gbit/s downlink and 1 Gbit/s uplink fiber speeds; Business customers go down at 8Gbit/s and go up at 2Gbit/s. Meanwhile, Orange stated that it is expanding the usage range of Wi Fi 6E to the “vast majority of customers”.
This is certainly an improvement to Livebox 6, which provides residential users with 2Gbit/s downlink and 600Mbit/s uplink.

XGS-PON, also known as Ten (X) Gigabit Symmetric Passive Optical Network, is based on the standard released in 2016 and can achieve symmetric speeds of up to 10Gbit/s. Compared to its competitors, Orange’s speed is somewhat slower as the two French operators have already used XGS-PON to provide higher speeds.
For example, SFR was the first to launch the 8Gbit/s Box 8X in February 2022, followed by Bouygues Telecom launching the 8Gbit/s service in July 2023, even though it was only in Paris at the time. At the same time, Iliad’s Free, relying on 10G EPON, also claims a speed of up to 8Gbit/s.
Orange spokesperson stated that the company is preparing for the expected growth in bandwidth demand. As the spokesperson said, some high usage customers are always looking for the next high bandwidth quote. The spokesperson said, “If you want to provide services above 2Gbps, you need to turn to XGS.”
Orange stated that upgrading from the old GPON standard to XGS-PON is relatively simple, and commented that the optical distribution network supports both technologies.
Migrating to XGS only requires upgrading at both ends: the client’s XGS is compatible with the XGS compatible ports or boards on both the optical network terminal/ONT and optical line terminal/OLT ends.
Orange also stated that financial and environmental issues were taken into consideration when introducing new technologies.

For example, XGS-PON allows it to offer paid games with higher ARPU in France and Spain. In addition, XGS is deployed using “combination ports” (GPON and XGS pon). “Allowing for larger PON tree splitting factor densification.” More users per port means fewer ports, fewer devices, and lower carbon footprint, “Orange added.
Although the current PON deployment is mainly focused on 10G technology, there have been some actions focused on the next generation 25G technology. Richard Rommes, Vice President of Harmonic Access Network Solutions and Strategy, also mentioned last year that although 10G PON has some advantages, he believes that 100G PON is the next major upgrade that is about to come.
In addition, a recent survey by Omdia found that although many cable TV operators are vigorously promoting hybrid fiber/coaxial cable (HFC) upgrades, a significant portion of them are also deploying PON technology for fiber to home (FTTP) construction in rural areas and other undeveloped environments. Other companies, such as Altice USA and Virgin Media O2, are actively covering PON on their traditional HFC networks.