PTCL and Huawei to pioneer next-gen fibre optic broadband

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has announced the country’s inaugural trial of Symmetric 50G-PON technology, marking a significant stride towards ushering in next-generation fibre-optic broadband services across Pakistan, according to a press release on Thursday.

This achievement is the culmination of PTCL’s strategic collaboration with Huawei, a global leader in information and communication technology, stated the press release.

Symmetric 50G-PON can provide 50Gbps connectivity in downstream as well as upstream transmission simultaneously. Symmetric 50G-PON provides an edge over Asymmetric 50 G-PON which supports 50Gbps in downstream transmission only.

PTCL also inaugurated Asymmetric 50G-PON for the first time in Pakistan at the beginning of the year. 50 GPON is recognized by ITU-T as the next frontier in passive optical network-based broadband technology, which is poised to revolutionize Pakistan’s digital landscape. With substantially enhanced capabilities surpassing those of existing GPON and XG(S)-GPON technologies, 50G-PON delivers an impressive 50Gbps per PON port.

This advancement holds the promise of reshaping future demands across industries, enterprises, businesses, campuses, and residential settings, unlocking the boundless potential for bandwidth-intensive and low-latency next-generation services.

Key applications and services enabled by this technology include innovations like holographic technologies, integration of XR-based metaverses in both domestic and professional domains, smart manufacturing leveraging 3D machine vision, remote surgery and medical clinics, and high-performance gaming, amongst others.

Additionally, it serves as a valuable asset for business and enterprise services, effectively catering to smart campuses, video production studios, edge data centres, cloud-centric SMEs, and small offices/home offices (SoHos).

A notable feature of 50G-PON technology is its seamless coexistence with GPON and XG(S)-PON over the same physical and passive optical network infrastructure. This capability shall empower PTCL to offer significantly enhanced broadband speeds to its customers through on-demand service upgrade requests.

Group Chief Technology and Information Officer (GCTIO) at PTCL & Ufone 4G Jafar Khalid expressed his enthusiasm for this milestone, stating, “PTCL has achieved yet another remarkable milestone with the successful trial of 50G-PON Symmetric technology in Pakistan. This initiative represents a significant stride towards the future evolution of fibre broadband connectivity in Pakistan, and signifies PTCL’s sustained commitment to enhance connectivity, and digital lifestyles of its customers.”