A whole building in the South Korean capital of Seoul now has a 52.5 Gbps fiber connection thanks to Nokia.
Nokia and South Korean telecom firm SK Broadband partnered on the project, which saw the building fitted with fiber optics. While there is no chance that every inhabitant will get such blockbuster speeds, each user could receive bandwidth at gigabit level.
Nokia teams up with SK Broadband in Seoul
SK Broadband is one of the top providers of fiber ultra-broadband in the country. Nokia was attracted by a partnership thanks to SK Broadband’s willingness to innovate in providing new levels of broadband technology in South Korea. The company was the first to bring Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to the commercial market in 2006.
The Finnish company reused an existing SK Broadband fiber network and access platform to make the connection a reality. The company was able to boost the GPON from 2.5 Gbps to 52.5 Gbps using its next generation passive optical network (PON) technology.
PON technology is not only faster but more efficient regarding costs and operation. The technology will be a huge part of South Korea’s attempts to bring gigabit broadband to the entire country by 2020.
Gigabit broadband hopefully coming soon to a town near you
“Nokia’s innovation edge and our portfolio of next generation fiber technologies help customers like SK Broadband realize the true Gigabit societies of the future,” said Federico Guillen, Nokia’s Fixed Networks Group president.
Nokia has made 55 trials of next generation fiber technology. South Korea is a great location for testing thanks to the fact that the country has a mobile broadband penetration of 91%. In addition, more than 55% of households have a fiber connection.
Nokia engineers have developed technology that can deliver internet connections at up to 1 Terabit per second. This is far faster than rival technologies such as Google Fiber. That research was undertaken by scientists from Nokia Bell, Technical University of Munich and Deutsche Telekom T-Labs.
Gigabit network speeds are certainly possible, but it might take a while before they become widespread. Perhaps more encouragingly, the 1 Tbsp tests were also carried out under “real-world conditions.”
