Sonic Fiber Internet and Adtran have entered a collaboration to deploy symmetrical 50G PON technology in California, the vendor said.
Adtran said that the technology will support both business and residential customers and can coexist with GPON, XGS-PON and be used in “combo PON” scenarios in which multiple generations of technology are integrated in a way that matches customers’ needs. The announcement provided no information on rollout locations, timing, or other details.
“Our partnership with Adtran marks a major milestone in the evolution of ultra-fast connectivity in California. By developing the state’s first 50G PON network, we’re laying the foundation to meet the rapidly growing demands of emerging technologies and data-intensive applications, as well as supporting emerging standards like Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 8 and beyond,” Stephen Bradley, Sonic Fiber Internet’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, said in the announcement.
50G PON has been in the news during the past few months.
In late July, Google Fiber said it had successfully tested a 50 Gbps connection on a live network. Employing Nokia’s 50G PON technology, the GFiber Labs team tested the connection on a live network in their Kansas City fiber huts. The test was characterized as a step in Google Fiber’s ambition to be capable of providing speeds as high as 100 Gbps.
In late September, ALLO Communications and Calix conducted a 50G PON trial on the service provider’s production network in Lincoln, Nebraska, according to the vendor. The trial used the Calix Broadband Platform.
Last month, Broadcom announced general availability of the BCM68660 and BCM55050. The company said the platform provides merchant silicon 50G PON Optical Line Terminal-Optical Network Unit (OLT-ONU) devices with an embedded neural processing unit (NPU). It is aimed to support artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) at the edge and enable new applications on 50G fiber networks.
During the same week, Nokia announced their partnership with Centranet, an electrical cooperative, on a commercial trial of a 50 Gbps fiber connection for the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma. Nokia says it is the first test of a 50 Gbps broadband connection on Tribal lands in the state.
