A group of service providers and vendors have banded together to form the NG-PON2 Technology Forum with the aim of promoting the adoption of NG-PON2 broadband technology.
The group, which was established in April, comes at a key time in the development of NG-PON2 as service providers begin trials and standards continue to emerge.
Initial participants include a mix of service providers like Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Altice, NTT and Vodafone as well as Tier 1 vendors such as Adtran, Calix and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC).
Seeing the growing demand for broadband, the ITU recently approved the multi-wavelength aspect of the TWDM portion of NG-PON2 (ITU-T G.989 series), which dramatically increases the speeds and flexibility of NG-PON2 connections.
Similar to efforts to promote earlier generations of PON, including BPON and GPON, the NG-PON2 forum has set a goal to drive broad market for carrier adoption of this technology, increasing the volume of deployments and reducing the costs for both consumer and enterprise customers.
Along with supporting new residential and business applications, the group will also serve as a liaison with other standards groups to develop NG-PON2 enhancements such as Channel Bonding and higher rate options.
Service provider interest in NG-PON2 continues to rise
Verizon, for one, began a NG-PON2 equipment test in its Innovation Lab in Waltham, Massachusetts. The telco will be testing NG-PON2 equipment from Ericsson (in partnership with Calix) and Adtran. Adtran and Ericsson/Calix were chosen out of a group of six vendors that competed in an RFP.
During the testing process, Verizon will examine several features of NG-PON2, including tuning performance, carrying residential and business services on the same platform, and interoperability and conformance testing to meet Verizon optical network terminal (ONT) specifications.
However, large telcos aren't the only type of service provider that's interested in NG-PON2. Eatel, a Louisiana-based independent telco, upgraded its FTTH network with Adtran gear that could support a mixture of GPON, NG-PON and DWDM for traffic backhaul.
In a previous interview with FierceTelecom, Eatel said would likely initially pursue business opportunities with its traditional wireline territory and its CLEC business for NG-PON2.
For more:
- see the release
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