Openreach XGS-PON is coming

As discussed in a recent thread and subsequent news article over at ISPR…

XGS-PON is coming to the Openreach FTTP network. Probably some time in 2026.

Here is the Openreach XGS-PON Supplier Technical Information Note with all the speed tiers, including 2.5 and 3.3 Gbps symmetric tiers.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

As discussed in a recent thread and subsequent news article over at ISPR…

XGS-PON is coming to the Openreach FTTP network. Probably some time in 2026.

Here is the Openreach XGS-PON Supplier Technical Information Note with all the speed tiers, including 2.5 and 3.3 Gbps symmetric tiers.

a wee bit too many tiers ......... i mean do we really need 40/10 and 40/15

a wee bit too many tiers ......... i mean do we really need 40/10 and 40/15

But what needs to be considered, is that Openreach will want a variety of products that can be all things to all people.
For some folk those lower speeds would be just fine. To be honest, my 330/50 g.Fast is more than we need.
Different strokes for different folks innit

As noted by @Zarjaz - Openreach will basically want to be able to offer the entire "farm" on XGS-PON - this includes all the existing and perhaps 'legacy' speed tiers to their ISP customers.

As a pure wholesale network, they would not want to put themselves in a position where a technology change, means that they can no longer service all possible clientele.

(I do realise that they can run GPON and XGS-PON on the same bit of glass just on different non-interfering waves - but that may be a transitory arrangement rather than long term steady state arrangement where they drop back to one active PON technology on the same network)

Edited by Pheasant (Sun 18-May-25 17:29:39)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

a wee bit too many tiers ......... i mean do we really need 40/10 and 40/15

But what needs to be considered, is that Openreach will want a variety of products that can be all things to all people.
For some folk those lower speeds would be just fine. To be honest, my 330/50 g.Fast is more than we need.
Different strokes for different folks innit

I do agree with the lower speeds, even the 0.5/0.5 product it makes sense, but less so 40/10 and 40/product. I could even understand a 40/40 product.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

As noted by @Zarjaz - Openreach will basically want to be able to offer the entire "farm" on XGS-PON - this includes all the existing and perhaps 'legacy' speed tiers to their ISP customers.

pricing alone will make them pointless to an extent.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

As a pure wholesale network, they would not want to put themselves in a position where a technology change, means that they can no longer service all possible clientele.

(I do realise that they can run GPON and XGS-PON on the same bit of glass just on different non-interfering waves - but that may be a transitory arrangement rather than long term steady state arrangement where they drop back to one active PON technology on the same network)

they will run the combo pon spec for quite awhile - maybe into 30s.

In reply to a post by Taras:

pricing alone will make them pointless to an extent.

Ah yes well the commercials and pricing as always will be 'interesting' when they do get announced. My guess is that they wont announce anything until Ofcom publishes the initial TAR output in Spring '26.

they will run the combo pon spec for quite awhile - maybe into 30s.

No reason why not, as long as they can get Nokia to supply their own equivalent for at least a two-supplier alternative. Otherwise the existing WDMs in the optical distribution frames beckon.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

To be honest, my 330/50 g.Fast is more than we need.

G.fast will phased out sooner or later. Replaced by FTTP.

Yes, lots of FTTP in near by estates, I worked on quite a few.

My nineties estate is all ducted, but no FTTP from anyone here, despite it being reasonably easy to deploy. Will see what happens to my g.Fast in the interim.

Indeed, we don't need 40/10 and 40/15. These too many tiers are deliberately being offered so they can misuse the price packages.

What difference would 10-15Mbps upload speed give to a customer? Aside from artificially making a price difference to the packages.

If XGS-PON is being rolled out, it doesn't make much sense to continue offering asymmetrical speeds. They need to inflate the price of their symmetrical services and this is part of their marketing strategy.

It reminds me of the Philips Ultra Efficient LED bulbs Energy rating A 60W equivalent to 4Watts and that's £9 but a non Ultra efficient of the same bulb that is Energy rating E is 7W=60W 2 pack costs only £4.50.

Why can't they all make them Ultra Efficient by default? They won't because they want to use this as an opportunity to increase the expense of these variants.

I'm seeing a similarity in the broadband packages as well. But most of the Altnets of-course are symmetric by default as they need to persuade customers to switch to their service. Openreach know their FTTC packages are not symmetrical and they try to push those same packages for FTTP knowing that they will still get those customers especially in areas with only Openreach FTTP.