In mid-month, Vuma, South Africa's largest Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) provider, announced its latest collaboration with Huawei to bring next-generation fiber technology and innovation to the South African market.
As the next-generation PON technology defined by ITU-T, 50G PON effectively supports 10Gbps Everywhere. It provides high-density symmetrical 50G PON to meet the growing bandwidth demands in future campus, industrial interconnect, enterprise, and residential scenarios. By integrating GPON, 10G PON, and 50G PON into a single port, it allows for on-demand service upgrades.
Through this partnership, Vuma introduces the 50G PON functionality, far surpassing the existing 2.5Gbps capabilities currently in use. After successful testing, the deployment of this groundbreaking technology will enable Vuma customers to experience higher upload and download fiber broadband speeds through the provider's FTTH network, meeting the escalating demand for faster, higher capacity, and more stable connections from consumers.
Francois Swart, Chief Technology Officer at Vuma, stated, "Vuma's investment in testing and launching the new Huawei PON technology is forward-looking, enabling us to achieve greater capacity in last-mile fiber and increase speeds by approximately 20 times, responding to customer demands."
At the "Huawei Eco-Connect Sub-Saharan Africa 2023" event, Richard Jin, President of Huawei's Optical Business Product Line, delivered a keynote speech highlighting Huawei's vision for the region – to ensure that everyone can access true high-speed connectivity.
Richard Jin expressed, "Fiber broadband will greatly promote innovation and employment in the country. However, fixed broadband (FBB) penetration rates in most African countries are far below the global average. This presents both challenges and opportunities."
Kim Jin, Vice President of Huawei's Optical Business Product Line, said, "We have together launched the best-in-class technology in the African market with our top customer Vuma, demonstrating the shared values of innovation and empowerment through interconnectivity between Huawei and Vuma. Through this partnership, our goal aligns closely with Vuma's, which is to support increased connectivity for all South Africans and bridge the gap in accessing high-quality digital services."