Frontier and Nokia Conduct 100G PON Demonstration

Frontier Communications is seeking to improve the standards of broadband.

The operator stated that it is the first operator in North America to demonstrate 100G broadband network speed in a demonstration with Nokia.

According to the two companies, the experiment is based on the Nokia MF Fiber PON platform and demonstrates how to provide a hybrid of 100G, 50G, 25G, and 10G Passive Optical Network (PON) technologies on single line fiber in Frontier networks.

Frontier’s extended fiber optic network supports 10G and 25G PON in some markets. The top broadband layer provided by the operator for residential users can currently reach up to 8Gbit/s.

Frontier and Nokia are conducting 100G trials on Frontier’s fiber optic innovation laboratory and production fiber optic networks in Lewisville, Texas. It is worth noting that the testing section of Lewisville was conducted on a fiber optic cable approximately 12 kilometers long, which has been in use since 2005.

Frontier emphasizes that support for the new generation PON technology uses the same fiber infrastructure, only requiring changes to the optical components at both ends of the network.

The adoption of 50G PON and 100G PON will lay the foundation for operators such as Frontier to provide speeds of approximately 50 Gbit/s and 80 Gbit/s respectively – possibly higher as the technology matures.

Frontier has not yet announced when it will commercialize 50G or 100G PON technology, but has stated that it has the flexibility to do so at the right time.

Veronica Bloodworth, Executive Vice President and Chief Network Officer of Frontier, said, “We have been evaluating how our customers’ needs and the power of innovation will drive our network. These tests confirm that we have great flexibility and selectivity in our technology roadmap. This also confirms that our investments over the past 20 years and in the coming years will help us maintain our competitive advantage.”

Nokia and NBN have already conducted similar demonstrations in Australia. Nokia recently partnered with Google Fiber to test 50G PON technology in the Kansas City area.

Stefaan Vanhastel, Vice President of Fixed Network Marketing and Innovation at Nokia, stated in an email statement that Nokia plans to conduct additional (100G PON) trials with other global operators later this year. In addition, Nokia’s 25G PON devices are being installed and tested in laboratories of over 50 operators worldwide.

Frontier is currently working on the second part of its plan to upgrade fiber optics to approximately 10 million locations. It still has 5 million locations in the footprint of the ‘third wave’, which are considered less attractive than the current construction targets. Frontier may explore the construction of the third wave through partnerships, joint ventures, and potential subsidies.