London Full Fibre ISP G.Network Tests Nokia’s 25Gbps PON Tech

London-focused UK gigabit-broadband ISP G.Network, which claims to be investing around £1bn to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the city, has become the latest internet provider to “successfully demonstrate” Nokia’s 25G PON technology running on their network.

The provider, which last year claimed to have already covered 400,000 premises across London (we haven’t had a solid update from them for a while), holds a long-term aim of reaching 1.3 million premises by around the end of 2026. But like a lot of other operators, they have so far tended to focus on deploying 10Gbps (symmetric) capable XGS-PON technology.

Working in partnership with G.Network, technology firm Xantaro have now demonstrated (test carried out last month in central London) how Nokia’s latest 25G PON technology can deliver greater speed and capacity to UK businesses, while also removing the need for costly leased lines to be set up for bandwidth intensive customers.

Nokia’s 25G PON service is enabled by the introduction of a new optical module into the existing FWLT-C Multi-PON cards within the existing OLT (fibre access node), along with Nokia’s 25G PON ONU (fibre modem) at the end user’s premises.

G.Network’s CTO, Paul Weir, said:

“Xantaro and Nokia are key partners for us and I’m pleased we’ve been able to use their latest technology to demonstrate even higher symmetrical speeds on our FTTP network. These high-bandwidth, symmetrical technologies are the smart alternative to expensive fibre leased-lines for London’s businesses, and prove that our existing network is futureproof.”

Nokia’s CEO UK&I, Phil Siveter, said:

“25G PON is realising the future of fibre today and provides key benefits over and above those provided by current networks. It has huge capacity and is simple to install into existing access technology used in exchanges, data centres, businesses and campuses. Using 25G PON enables service providers to quickly boost the capacity of their existing fibre assets, seizing high bandwidth opportunities today and providing the scale needed for the future.”

We should point out that G.Network are by no means the first UK operator to test Nokia’s 25G PON technology on a full fibre network. But Ogi did recently become the first ISP to actually deploy a live commercial service using the technology (here), although we expect to see others following a similar route over the next few years.

In the meantime, G.Network didn’t reveal any specific technical details from its recent test or clarify what their rollout plan is for the technology. But hopefully we will hear more about this in the not-too-distant future.