PT Inovação helped Portugal Telecom (PT) making history once more. While announcing the commitment to bring fiber to 5.3 million Portuguese homes and companies until the year 2020, Portugal Telecom has presented a new and 100% national technology. Called NG-PON2, this new technology will increase 16 to 32 times the current fiber optic speeds.
Developed at PT Inovação laboratories, this new solution uses PT’s existing physical infrastructure, coexisting with GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) and without the need for any additional investment. At the physical level, NG-PON2 incorporates two optical termination equipments also developed by PT Inovação: the Optical Line Termination – OLT (central device) and the Optical Network Termination – ONT (customers’ terminal equipment).
In addition to significantly increasing the bandwidth, NG-PON2 brings symmetry to a massified access network, ensuring the same speed in downloading and uploading content. “Today we achieved symmetrical speeds of 40 Gbps and by early 2016 we will be able to achieve 80 Gbps,” assures Alexandre Fonseca, Chief Technology Officer of PT. The new technology is clearly an advantage over the current GPON, which ensures asymmetrical speeds of 2.5 Gbps download to 1.25 Gbps upload.
This technology makes possible the massification of the access to optical fiber, thus responding to the growing demands for bandwidth and allowing a more efficient cost management, in particular for corporate clients. From the smallest to the larger corporations, all companies will have access to more and better services, independently of their size or location.
Aside the benefits for the corporate segment, this technology also brings benefits for PT. By being compatible with mobile networks, NG-PON2 will allow PT to be more effective in meeting the customer’s needs for increasing mobility.
This was a pioneer demonstration worldwide as it was the first time that an operator presented these symmetrical speeds. Also it was the first time this was made with tunable ONTs, which allows the choice for a different wavelength or light color without service disruption in cases of failure, and on real network scenario. This positions PT in the spotlight, both national and internationally, as a leader in the development of optical communication solutions.
Once again PT Inovação proves its expertise in engineering and research with a solution that can be exported to companies in the Altice Group and commercialized to other operators worldwide.