Leveraging 25G PON technology, developed by Nokia, Full Fibre can deliver download speeds of 25Gbps over a single optical fibre and can deployed on existing underlying infrastructure that Openreach is rolling out across the UK.
“As the country’s largest digital infrastructure provider, it’s crucial that we continue to plan, innovate and evolve our network, to make sure we have the capacity and capabilities that the UK needs in the future," said Peter Bell, director of network technology at Openreach.
“The Full Fibre network we’re building today is going to be the platform for the UK’s economic, social and environmental prosperity, and these trials prove that we can keep upgrading the speeds and services our customers experience over that network for decades to come.”
Should the trials prove successful and pass compatibility test with existing technologies, both companies could develop an even wider range of services and speeds for the UK’s communications service providers.
In turn these service providers can offer consumers and businesses in the future enabling them to upgrade customers quickly, smoothly and without any disruption.
"The key to unlock the virtually unlimited capacity that fibre offers is to develop new generations of fibre technology – and faster chips," said Sandy Motley (pictured), president of Nokia Fixed Networks.
"Nokia’s Quillion chip allows us to have a solution that supports three generations of PON technology from a single platform that is already in the Openreach network. Having GPON, XGS-PON and 25GS-PON all on the same fibre means Openreach can efficiently evolve the network capabilities, address new opportunities and connect more consumers, businesses and 5G cell sites.”
The field trial is due to launch by the end of the year and will be tested using a range of bandwidth-hungry applications. Nokia expects 25G speeds to be used by operators to extend their Full Fibre networks beyond residential use into enterprises. The technology can also be used by operators for 5G backhaul.
