Two PON Technologies to Coexist: EPON Still Leads in Total Volume

Since the beginning of this year, the three major telecom operators have further intensified their deployment of PON equipment. Among them, China Telecom procured 16 million lines, China Mobile 8 million lines, and China Unicom 25 million lines.

Recently, China Unicom announced the results of its 2011 PON procurement, with a total volume of 25 million lines and a scale of RMB 4 billion. The overall PON equipment bidding ratio of EPON:GPON was 4:6.

Some industry insiders believe that GPON will gradually become the focus of operator procurement. In response, Kong Jing pointed out, "Operators' choice between the two PON technologies is mainly determined by considering the characteristics of different regions. In fact, the current deployment volume of GPON has not exceeded that of EPON. The total deployed EPON volume is still somewhat larger than GPON, and these two technologies will continue to coexist for a certain period of time."

As Kong Jing stated, GPON equipment prices have already dropped to a level basically on par with EPON, and its performance has been verified as suitable for large-scale deployment, particularly in FTTH scenarios. Meanwhile, EPON continues to see substantial deployment in FTTB mode, with operators still increasing their deployment efforts. On the vendor side, mainstream suppliers can now provide both EPON and GPON equipment simultaneously, rather than betting exclusively on a single technology. When facing operator procurement, vendors compete more on the cost-effectiveness of their respective equipment.

----- Excerpted from: C114 China Communication Network