Vuma, South Africa’s biggest Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) provider, has announced the integration of next generation fibre technology and innovation to the South African market, through its latest partnership with ICT manufacturing giant, Huawei. This joint innovation from Vuma and Huawei was announced at the Huawei Eco Connect sub-Saharan Africa event that took place in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre, on 6 July.

In 2018, FSAN/ITU-T started the formulation of the 50G[1]PON standard G.HSP: G. Higher Speed PON, which was released in 2022 and be gradually put into commercial use by 2025.

The partnership sees the launch of 50G PON capabilities – significantly higher than the existing 2.5 Gbps capabilities currently in use. Following its testing phase, the deployment of this first to market technology will make considerably higher upload and download fibre broadband speeds accessible to Vuma customers across the provider’s FTTH network, meeting growing consumer demand for faster, higher capacity, and more stable connectivity.

“Vuma’s investment in the testing and rollout of the new Huawei PON technology is future-proofing our network, which will allow us to enable much more capacity over the last mile fibre and increase speeds as our customers require – approximately 20 times faster than the current capabilities deployed,” says Francois Swart, Chief Technology Officer at Vuma.

At the Huawei Eco-Connect sub-Saharan Africa 2023 launch event, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, Richard Jin said "Fibre broadband will significantly promote innovation and employment for the country. However, the penetration rate of FBB in most of the African countries is much lower than global average. This is both a challenge and an opportunity.”

Also speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, Philly Mapulane, said: “We cannot allow the digital era to introduce another segregation of a section of our freedom. We are committed to bridging the digital divide and making sure that we have a digitally inclusive society,” adding that telecommunications companies, such as Vuma, have a critical role to play in expanding the reach of connectivity in the country.

“We’ve launched the best technology currently available in the African market with our top customer, Vuma, which speaks volumes to the values of innovation and empowerment through connectivity that Huawei and Vuma share,” says Kim Jin, Vice President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line. “Through this partnership, our goal, much like Vuma’s, is to support increased connectivity access to all South Africans, and to bridge the gap in access to high quality digital services.”