Ottawa, Ontario - Nokia and Bell Canada today announced the first successful test of 25G PON fibre broadband technology in North America at Bell’s Advanced Technical Lab in Montréal, Québec.

The trial validates that current GPON and XGS-PON broadband technology and future 25G PON can work seamlessly together on the same fibre hardware, which is being deployed throughout the network today. 25G PON delivers huge symmetrical bandwidth capacity that will support new use cases such as premium enterprise service and 5G transport.

For the past decade, Bell has been rolling out fibre Internet service to homes and businesses across the country, a key component in the company’s focus on connecting Canadians in urban and rural areas alike with next-generation broadband networks. With this successful trial, Bell can be confident that its network will absorb the increased capacity of future technologies and connect Canadians for generations to come.

Stephen Howe, EVP & Chief Technology Officer, Bell, said: “As part of Bell’s purpose to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, we embrace next-generation technologies such as 25G PON to ensure we remain at the forefront of broadband innovation. Our successful work with Nokia to deliver the first 25G PON trial in North America will help ensure we maximize the Bell fibre advantage for our customers in the years to come.”

Jeffrey Maddox, President of Nokia Canada, said: “Nokia innovations powered the fibre networks and the connectivity lifeline that carried Canadian homes and businesses through the pandemic. 25G PON innovations will drive the next generation of advances in our connected home experience.”

Bell and Nokia have closely collaborated over the years on many industry breakthroughs, such as the first Canadian trial of 5G mobile technology in 2016. Bell continues to work with Nokia to build and expand its 5G network across Canada.

Note to editors: Nokia’s 25G PON solution utilizes the world’s first implementation of 25G PON technology and includes Lightspan and ISAM access nodes, 25G/10G optical cards and fibre modems.

Usually located in telecom central offices, Nokia’s high-capacity access nodes are deployed for massive scale fibre roll-outs. They connect thousands of users via optical fibre, aggregate their broadband traffic and send it deeper in the network. The fibre access nodes can support multiple fibre technologies including GPON, XGS-PON, 25G PON and Point-to-Point Ethernet to deliver a wide range of services with the best fit technology.

Nokia ONT (Optical Network Termination) devices, or fibre modems, are located at the user location. They terminate the optical fibre connection and deliver broadband services within the user premises or cell sites.