FTTH has now become mainstream in fixed broadband (FBB) construction. From 2014 to 2018, the number of FTTH users increased from 200 million to 538 million, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22%. Currently, half of FBB users choose FTTH. The FTTH construction cost in some countries is lower than USD400 per line, and is expected to reduce to USD 300 per lines by 2020.

Up to date, more than 20 operators in the world have deployed 10G PON networks, more than 30 operators have released 10G PON services, and more than 100 operators have released Gigabit services.

According to forecast by OVUM, the shipment of 10G PON ports in the Asia Pacific region will exceed that of GPON ports, and the cost of optical modules and ONUs for 10G PON will decrease by 40% by 2021.

GPON does not mean 1 Gbps bandwidth per home. Similarly, 10G PON does not mean 10 Gbps per home. If mainstream homes choose bandwidth packages higher than 200 Mbps, 10G PON needs to be deployed to ensure a premium broadband experience for users.

As various regions differ much in broadband development conditions, construction costs, and equipment costs, GPON is still required in many parts of the world. In these areas with limited broadband development, how to build a network with an optimal cost for the next 10 years has become a major concern for operators.

Regarding the active part construction for FTTH, Huawei provides the OLT Flex-PON solution to build a 10G PON ready network at the cost of a GPON.

To be 10G PON ready, the OLT needs to support GPON SFPs (OLT optical modules) in the initial phase to develop GPON users. The GPON SFPs can be replaced with 10G PON SFPs on the OLT later to provision 10G PON services without changing the ODN network or replacing boards, thereby realizing pay-as-you-go investment and smooth evolution.

Huawei provides the innovative OLT Flex-PON solution that supports both GPON/XG(S)-PON and Combo PON using pluggable SFPs, enabling smooth evolution from GPON to XG(S)-PON. In this way, 10G PON can be deployed on demand, reducing the OLT cost by 25%.

By August 2019, Huawei's OLT Flex-PON solution has passed admission tests and trial uses of 55 operators around the world, and has been successfully deployed in 8 operator networks.

Huawei's unique Flex-PON solution is set to lead the OLT market, help global operators smoothly evolve to 10G PON, and provide users with a premium experience in bandwidth-hungry services such as high definition videos.