Swisscom has demonstrated a transmission speed of 50 Gbit/s on a fixed network in Switzerland.
Swisscom engineers have achieved the milestone in a real network environment in the access network by upgrading existing OLT (Optical Line Termination) hardware with a 50 Gbit/s PON (Passive Optical Network) Line Card prototype.

Swisscom achieved a download transmission speed of 50 Gbit/s and an upload transmission speed of 25 Gbit/s on the fixed network connection.

“The results of testing based on PON technology and architecture clearly demonstrate that we have some powerful options available,” Markus Reber, head of Swisscom Networks, said.

Swisscom estimates that the technology will be ready to market and deploy in around two years. The company is focusing on two areas of application. PON with 50 Gbit/s will be an option for the business customer market initially.

Progressive network virtualisation will enable companies to use the bandwidth they need on a flexible basis in line with their requirements, for instance. The 10 Gbit/s already available in the residential mass market should be more than enough for several years to come.

“The 50 Gbit/s option offers opportunities as it allows the existing fibre optic infrastructure to be deployed in a more versatile way. The technology will facilitate access to mobile masts, particularly for 5G, as the same network can be used as the one already built to connect households,” Markus Reber said.