Nokia Siemens Confirms PON Plans

Nokia Siemens Networks has confirmed its retreat from the current GPON market, stating in a press release issued today that "the mass market roll out of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is unlikely in the short term."

Light Reading revealed NSN's withdrawal from the highly competitive GPON market last week. (See 'Run Away!' Nokia Siemens Retreats From GPON.)

The vendor says the 100-fold increase in network traffic it expects between now and 2015, when it believes 5 billion people will be permanently connected to IP networks, "and the operators’ need for revenue growth are driving Nokia Siemens Networks’ investment in fiber-based next generation optical access (NGOA) technologies."

NSN says it wil focus on DSL developments and develop NGOA technologies, "aiming to take a leading role in the future FTTH market." The vendor says it will continue to invest in DSL to address "the increasing deployment" of fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) and fiber-to-the-building (FTTB).

For example: BT Unveils $3B FTTx Plan and DT's VDSL Triple Play.

“Fiber is progressing closer to the home with the focus today on fiber-to-the-curb or building with last mile connectivity based on proven DSL technology,” stated NSN's chief marketing officer Christoph Caselitz in the vendor's release. Mass deployment of FFTH is unlikely, NSN reckons, “due to regulatory uncertainty and the operator’s business cases. This will be different with the NGOA technology, where we will target to take a leading role.”

That NGOA technology involves a TDM-based PON architecture traversing 100 kilometers, comprising a metro OLT (optical line termination) unit with multiple 10 Gbit/s backhaul connections, a low-cost, low-power optical transceiver with amplification housed in a local exchange, and a PON splitter feeding up to 512 end users. NSN believes this setup could be ready for deployment in about five years.

In 10 years, NSN sees the capacity of this architecture increasing to the point where more than 1,000 end points, including mobile base stations, being fed by a single fiber. The vendor believes carriers will be attracted by the reduction in floor space and power usage as well as the greater reach and scalability of such a platform.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading