Openreach tests 50 Gbps broadband – don’t expect it anytime soon

Download speeds of 41.9 Gbps and upload speeds of 20.6 Gbps achieved, claims BT division

Network builder and maintainer Openreach says it has tested a 50 Gbps fiber broadband connection in the UK, as a first step towards making it commercially available at some point in the distant future.

The infrastructure arm of former state-owned telco BT says it ran trials from a residential property in Ipswich near England's east coast using 50G PON (passive optical network) kit supplied by Nokia.

This achieved download speeds of 41.9 Gbps and upload speeds of 20.6 Gbps during its tests, Openreach claims, which were run over a section of the company's existing Full Fiber network.

The implication is that customers now getting fiber rolled out to their premises as part of BT's network expansion program should be able to receive the service over the same connection in future.

When that might be is debatable, of course. Openreach told The Register: "It won't be available commercially just yet," and that "higher speeds are going to be needed in the future as data consumption keeps on increasing as we all do more stuff online."

For comparison, Vodafone was claiming to offer higher speeds than any other provider in the UK last year, with up to 2.2 Gbps available across altnet CityFibre's network.

However, ISPreview notes that Openreach is still using the older Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) kit across most of its broadband network, meaning the vast majority of those 17 million properties across the country that BT Group claimed to have reached in its recent Trading Update.

In a statement, Trevor Linney, Openreach director for Network Technology, said: "Today we're deploying XGS-PON ready equipment, and this trial proves we're ready for the next generational leap, as and when it's needed."

XGS-PON allows for symmetrical data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps (i.e. 10 Gbps upstream and downstream), and the fact Openreach is just rolling this out now demonstrates it is a long way from providing 50Gbps.

BT rival Virgin Media O2 announced it was offering UK services powered by XGS-PON at least a couple of years back. Alphabet-owned Google Fiber claimed to be the first operator to trial 50G PON in the US last year.

Yet as Openreach notes, demand for higher speeds and ever greater bandwidth continues to grow apace, and the operator says future deployments of 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps and 50 Gbps capable broadband will open up "a world of exciting possibilities."

As use case, Openreach lists virtual reality, augmented reality, and 8K video streaming, while crystal-clear video conferencing, instantaneous file sharing, and uninterrupted access to cloud-based applications might be of more interest to business users.

Did we mention AI? It's obligatory to mention AI, and Openreach says that 50Gbps connections will allow these applications to handle larger datasets more efficiently, leading to more accurate training and better model performance. It might make synchronization of models across greater distances easier, we suppose.

PP Foresight Founder and telecoms analyst Paolo Pescatore said the development underlines the potential of fiber and should ensure a path towards much needed investment in next generation networks.

"We are someway off needing those speeds and we may never see actual live commercial packages," Pescatore told The Register.

"However, given the insatiable appetite of users for more data, more new connected devices, all combined with the euphoria of AI, then we will need a robust, reliable and fast backhaul to deliver a plethora of services across fixed and mobile networks." ®