More than a million homes across the UK are set for a next-generation broadband ‘upgrade’ – capable of delivering speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second.
Broadband giant Openreach has revealed plans for its ‘turbocharged’ full-fibre XGS-PON technology – as part of ambitious plans to create greater capacity and ‘future-ready’ digital infrastructure.
The new technology can go beyond today’s top download speeds of 1.8Gbps on full-fibre and push up to 8.5Gbps – 28 times faster than the download speed a typical UK household experiences today.
The rollout means the new speeds will be available to more than a million premises over the next 12 months – building on an ongoing XGS-PON pilot launched in March this year across 40,000 residential premises in Guildford and surrounding areas.
It will also expand the future-proofing technology to cover around a third of its full-fibre network over the next five years, through a programme of further build, network upgrades and equipment modernisation.
Openreach’s Full Fibre network – which now reaches more than 23.4m premises – is built largely using GPON technology, which already delivers ultrafast gigabit broadband services.
But as more people move onto fibre and demand for data continues to grow, newer technology is needed to unlock even higher speeds and additional network capacity.
In technical terms, the ‘X’ in XGS-PON means it’s capable of 10 gigabits per second and ‘S’ means it’s capable of symmetric speeds i.e. the same for both uploads and download.
Trevor Linney, Openreach’s director of network technology, said: “Our full-fibre network already offers gigabit capable broadband to more than 23.4 million premises, and more than 9.4 million customers have upgraded so far. As demand for data continues to grow, our investment in XGS-PON technology will enable us to offer even higher speeds over the same network, and the additional capacity needed to support the UK’s digital future.
“By continuing to invest in upgrades, we’re delivering a platform that will power the next generation of technology, from AI-enabled services, smart homes and future mobile networks, to cloud-based business and public services.”
