Huawei, HKT Hong Kong and Globe Philippines roll out AirPON

Source: Huawei. Lu speaks at the AirPON launch.

Huawei has launched AirPON together with HKT Hong Kong and Globe Philippines. The solution reuses existing wireless sites to build full-fibre access networks for mobile operators quickly and at  low cost. PON stands for passive optical network.

Traditionally, mobile operators have to deploy centralised optical line terminations (OLTs) in central office equipment rooms and lay out massive optical cables to reach users when implementing fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). This requires large-scale initial investments and the resolution of complex problems such as right-of-way (ROW) acquisition. As a result, FTTH network construction has always been time-consuming and expensive, delaying the provisioning of services.

Gary Lu, President, Huawei Network Marketing & Solution Sales Department said, "The AirPON solution shortens the optical cables between OLTs and users from over 3 km to below 300 m, greatly improves the efficiency of optical cable deployment, and reduces the ROI period to less than three years. With it, operators can reap benefits faster when building full-fibre access networks."

"HKT would like to replicate the solution to village areas or low-rise buildings in urban areas to
extend our Ultra Broadband coverage. AirPON allows installation of PON equipment on roof
top which can be suitable for PON deployment in low rise old buildings in HK," said Peter Lam,
MD, HKT Engineering Department, Hong Kong (HK).

"Huawei's AirPON solution helps us to efficiently roll out FTTH networks with simple ROW
permitting and site acquisition and enables us to quickly provision fibre broadband services,"
said Joel Agustin, VP, Globe Philippines.

AirPON is in use with 45 operators around the world. The solution consists of Huawei's OptiXaccess series blade OLTs, Digital QuickODN (DQ ODN), and OptiXstar series eAI optical network terminals (ONTs). It reuses existing mobile sites to build full-fibre access networks.