Verizon FiOS nearly hits 1 Gbps in June network trial; bodes well for 3D, ultra-HDTV

Verizon, using an existing Motorola-designed gigabit passive optical network system deployed in Taunton, N.J., delivered nearly 1 Gbps bandwidth to a business customer in a live-production FiOS network setting this past June.

The company says the test shows it will be able to deliver the Holy Grail of bandwidth service to other business customers, as well as residential customers, to accommodate the ever-increasing bandwidth demands of customers looking to use, among other things, 3D TV and ultra-HDTV, or 4K television, as well as advanced multi-player gaming and video conferencing.

Verizon said its GPON network supports up to 2.4 Gbps downstream, and 1.2 Gbps upstream to customers connected to its passive optical network.

In the test, which brought a new fiber connection from an existing operating GPON system at the company's Taunton call-switching office to a second optical network terminal located at the business customer's facility, throughput speeds were measured at 925 Mbps to a local server and more than 800 Mbps to regional test speed servers more than 400 miles away.

The customer's existing FiOS service was left in place, and showed no degradation in the voice, data or video services during this trial.

"This trial demonstrated that the current architecture has sufficient headroom to allow for a progressive increase in capacity as needed by our residential and business customers on our current GPON platform, and validates our decision to support both residential and business services on the same platform," said Vincent O'Byrne, director of Verizon's technology organization, who managed the trial.

For more:
- see this release

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