Broadband Forum interoperability testing preparations, more than fifteen trials, the first live deployment, and 55 25GS-PON MSA members confirm rapid progression

• Broadband Forum is initiating work to add 25GS-PON to both its Interoperability Testing and PON Management projects
• More than fifteen operators have tested and trialed 25GS-PON including the first 20G symmetrical service trial in a production network
• EPB of Chattanooga became the first service provider to deploy a community-wide 25 Gbps internet service
• 25GS-PON MSA Group membership has grown to 55 service providers and technology companies
• 25GS-PON MSA Group will exhibit at Network X in Amsterdam from October 18-20, 2022

The 25GS-PON Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) Group today announced that, in evidence of the rapidly growing, global momentum behind 25GS-PON development and deployments, the Broadband Forum (BBF) membership has approved initiating work to add 25GS-PON to both its Interoperability Testing and PON Management projects.

This is a key development as 25GS-PON technology continues to mature, verifying that equipment, products, and systems from different companies function and seamlessly communicate as required by the 25GS-PON specification. “The Broadband Forum has agreed to start work on an interoperability test specification and a YANG data model for 25GS-PON. This is an important development as interoperability testing and YANG data modeling have been critical to the success of every previous generation of PON technology and ensuring that future PON advancements are relevant to multi-service needs beyond current residential services,” said Craig Thomas, Vice-President, Strategic Marketing & Business Development at BBF. BBF is the communications industry’s leading open standards development organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development.

To date, more than fifteen leading service providers around the world have publicly announced 25GS-PON trials as broadband operators work to ensure their networks can deliver the bandwidth and service levels required by new applications, increased network usage, and millions of new devices. Included in the list of trials is AT&T which, in June 2022, became the first operator in the world to achieve 20 Gbps symmetric speed in a production PON network. In that trial, AT&T also took advantage of wavelength coexistence which enabled them to combine 25GS-PON with XGS-PON and other point-to-point services on the same fiber.

Other operators that have conducted 25GS-PON trials include AIS (Thailand), Bell (Canada), Chorus (New Zealand), CityFibre (UK), Delta Fiber, Deutsche Telekom AG (Croatia), EPB (USA), Fiberhost (Poland), Frontier Communications (USA), Google Fiber (USA), Hotwire (USA), KPN (The Netherlands), Openreach (UK), Proximus (Belgium), Telecom Armenia (Armenia), TIM Group (Italy), and Türk Telekom (Turkey).

In another world’s first, following its successful trial, EPB launched the first community-wide 25 Gbps internet service with symmetrical upload and download speeds, available to all residential and commercial customers.

The 25GS-PON MSA now has 55 members as the number of operators and vendors supporting the development and deployment of 25GS-PON has continued to grow. New 25GS-PON MSA members include service providers Cox Communications, Dobson Fiber, Interphone, Openreach, Planet Networks, and Telus, and technology companies Accton Technology, Airoha, Azuri Optics, Comtrend, Leeca Technologies, minisilicon, MitraStar Technology, NTT Electronics, Source Photonics, Taclink, TraceSpan, uSenlight, VIAVI, Zaram Technology, and Zyxel Communications.

Previously announced members include ALPHA Networks, AOI, Asia Optical, AT&T, BFW, CableLabs, Chorus, Chunghwa Telecom, Ciena, CommScope, Cortina Access, CZT, DZS, EXFO, EZconn, Feneck, Fiberhost, Gemtek, HiLight Semiconductor, Hisense Broadband, JPC, MACOM, MaxLinear, MT2, NBN Co., Nokia, OptiComm, Pegatron, Proximus, Semtech, SiFotonics, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd, Tibit Communications, and WNC.

The 25GS-PON MSA Group is excited to announce that it will be exhibiting at Network X | Broadband World Forum (https://networkxevent.com) in booth #B44B at the RAI Amsterdam on October 18-20, 2022. All are invited to stop by, meet a few of our member companies, and get more info on 25GS-PON and the MSA.