Swisscom tests 50G PON technology on a live network

State-owned network provider Swisscom has begun testing 50G PON technology in the live network of an unnamed Swiss municipality, after putting it through its paces in a laboratory in 2020 – the first telco in the world to do so, it claims. Swisscom believes 50G PON will lead to increased flexibility for its business customers, facilitating, for example, additional security features.

Swisscom claims that “50G-PON will lead to a new kind of flexibility in high-speed connectivity, chiefly for business customers, paving the way for additional security service features or connection service attributes. For example, the technology significantly reduces latency compared to today’s standards, and guaranteed transmission speeds can be defined by network slicing (NOTE: network slicing requires a 5G SA Core network and is not intended for fiber optics networks). These are just a few examples that, thanks to 50G-PON, can be included in considerations for new products and services aligned to business customer requirements in the coming years.”

Swisscom plans to introduce the technology by 2025 at the latest. PON technologies can be used in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint networks. The passive splitter is placed in a point-to-point network rather than in the cable conduit at the control center.