Chorus and Nokia launches first trial of 25G PON broadband

Chorus and Nokia have announced the successful demonstration of 25 gigabit per second fibre (Gbps) broadband technology at the Chorus Fibre Lab in Auckland.

The trial is part of Chorus' commitment to bringing the best technology to New Zealand, ensuring Kiwis continue to reap the benefit of ultra-fast fibre connectivity to meet surging data demands.

The demonstration at Chorus' Fibre Lab achieved an impressive 21.4 Gbps download speed. This test was on the same fibre strand that also showed over 930 Mbps over GPON and 8,000 Mbps over XGS-PON, a technology marketed as 'Hyperfibre' in New Zealand.

With the enhanced capacities of 25-gigabit passive optical networking (25G PON), Chorus will be able to offer higher speed data services to wholesale broadband providers and, in turn, to residential and business customers.

While not yet commercially available large businesses are expected to see great benefit from the increased speeds and capacity for their growing low latency cloud connectivity, IoT and industrial metaverse applications. As data usage continues to increase, high quality broadband is becoming increasingly mission critical for both consumers and businesses.

"When we started our ultra-fast broadband journey, we knew GPON was a future-proofed technology," said chief technology officer at  Chorus, Ewen Powell.

"In 2020, we proved that with the launch of Hyperfibre using Nokia's XGS-PON, which offers Kiwi businesses and high-end residential users symmetrical speeds up to 8 Gbps. Today, we're delighted to be partnering with Nokia to show the next step on the journey," he said.

"For Chorus, what's truly outstanding about 25G PON is the ease with which it will integrate with our existing fibre infrastructure, enabling service providers to upgrade their customers on demand," said Powell.

"It will play an important role in supporting New Zealand's future connectivity fabric."

Based on the energy efficient Quillion chipset and available for the widely deployed Nokia fibre platform, Nokia's 25G PON solution can be quickly and easily introduced to existing networks.

Stefaan Vanhastel, CTO of Fixed Networks at Nokia, adds "As the first operator to launch symmetric 8 Gbps, Chorus pioneered super-fast services with their Hyperfibre package.

"In this demonstration Chorus has shown both how easy it is to activate 25G PON and the scale and capacity it provides to support ever increasing data demands," he says.

 Chorus maintains and builds the phone and broadband networks that connect New Zealand homes and businesses to the world.

New Zealand's largest open-access internet infrastructure company, Chorus provides wholesale telecommunications services to 90-plus phone and broadband retailers.