Swisscom and Huawei Jointly Completed the World’s First 50G PON Live Network Verification

[Shenzhen, China, November 2, 2022] Recently, Swisscom and Huawei jointly announced that they have completed the world’s first 50G PON service verification on Swisscom’s live fiber network, proving Swisscom’s continuous innovation and leadership in fiber broadband services and technologies. This is also a new milestone for long-term joint innovation after Swisscom and Huawei completed the world’s first 50G PON technology verification in 2020.

It has become a consensus in the industry that broadband networks are moving towards all-optical access. The mainstream technology is GPON/10G PON. In recent years, the rapid development of various new services, such as AR/VR, and various cloud applications, promote the evolution of optical access technologies. ITU-T officially approved the first version of the 50G PON standard in September 2021. Currently, 50G PON has been considered as the mainstream standard of the next-generation PON technology across the industry chain, such as industry standards organizations, operators, and equipment vendors. 50G PON can be used in various application scenarios, such as governments, enterprises, homes, and industrial parks.

The 50G PON technology and service verification completed by Swisscom and Huawei is based on the existing access platform and wavelength specifications that comply with the standards. The 50G PON service coexists with the 10G PON service on the live optical network of Swisscom, proving the stable high rate and low latency of the 50G PON in high-speed Internet access and IPTV services. This indicates that the 50G PON technology system can coexist with the PON network and support smooth evolution, laying a solid foundation for large-scale deployment of 50G PON in the future. This verification test is a key step in leading the next-generation industry direction, joint technology innovation, and application scenario exploration.

Markus Reber, Head of Networks of Swisscom, said: “As a leading ICT company in Switzerland, Swisscom has been closely following up on latest technical solutions. Our cooperation with Huawei on 50G PON shows us the future evolution direction of fiber broadband, and helps us improve user experience and accelerate enterprise digital transformation with leading networks. The Swisscom network is thus ready for the latest possibilities of digital Switzerland.”

Feng Zhishan, President of Huawei’s Optical Access Product Line, said, “Huawei will leverage its continuous R&D investment in 50G PON technologies to help Swisscom build advanced optical access networks, provide premium network connections for homes and enterprises, and lead the industry development.”