Centranet, an electrical cooperative, and Nokia are cooperating on commercial trial of a 50 Gbps fiber connection for the Sac and Fox nation. Nokia says it is the first test of a 50 Gbps broadband connection on Tribal lands in Oklahoma.
The announcement offered little details about the Tribal broadband test, other than saying Nokia’s Lightspan MF platform is being used.
“Our fiber platform supports a full range of PON technologies, allowing them to be mixed and matched on the same platform to deliver ultra-fast, reliable internet services over a single fiber,” Mark Klimek, Vice President, North American Business Center at Nokia said in the announcement.
“This is critical for those who want to future-proof their fiber network and gain the flexibility to address evolving network demands. By partnering with Centranet, we are ensuring that every community, especially those who have been underserved for far too long, can access the opportunities that cutting-edge technology provides, now and for generations to come.”
Centranet provides fiber-based broadband to more than 10,000 rural households and Tribal areas in north central Oklahoma. It is a subsidiary of the Central Rural Electric Cooperative.
Nokia has been aiming at 50G PON. In July, Google Fiber said that its lab team had used Nokia gear to test a connection of this speed on a live network in its Kansas City fiber huts. Google Fiber, which markets itself as GFiber, aims to eventually provide speeds as fast as 100 Gbps.
Others are aiming for 50 Gbps as well. Last month, for instance, ALLO Communications and Calix conducted a 50G PON trial on the service provider’s production network in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Ziply is using another approach. Late last year, CEO Harold Zeitz told Telecompetititor that the company is using Ethernet — not PON — to provide 50 Gbps service to its footprint in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
