NBN Co eyes 25Gbps services

NBN Co CTO Ray Owen has unveiled some of the upgrades the network builder has in mind as it pushes the capability of residential fibre beyond the current single gigabit speeds.

Speaking to the CommsDay Wholesale Forum, Owen foreshadowed upgrades from the edge of the network to the core.

He said NBN Co is in the vendor selection process to upgrade speeds available to fibre customers using the XGS-PON passive optical network standard. 

The company first ran XGS-PON at 10Gbps symmetrical in its labs in 2017 [pdf].

“We’re helping define standards for 50Gbps and 100Gbps PON going forward”, Owen said.

Supporting the higher customer speeds will place greater demands on its core network.

Owen told the conference NBN Co’s core network currently peaks at between 18 and 20Tbps, but in five years that will reach 33Tbps.

He said the “constant investment that is required in technology to ensure that we can not only meet those speed requirements but the capacity requirements of users of the network is constantly on our mind”.

NBN Co is also investing in network virtualisation, he said.

“I hope within 10 years to have a fully virtualised environment for our electronics, together with all the benefits that go with the operational costs of operating that network.”