China discreetly advances in the massive deployment of 50,000 Mbps internet to surpass the rest of the world in connection speed.
China Telecom is promoting the development of 50G-PON and FTTR implementations.
A recent five-year forecast report published by Dell'Oro Group highlights the focus that telecommunications companies in China are placing on the deployment of FTTR (fiber to the room) and 50 Gbps PON. This latest technology, which allows speeds of up to 50 Gbps (50,000 Mbps) downstream, represents a significant advancement in the country's broadband infrastructure.
Revenue from PON equipment is expected to rise from $10.5 billion in 2024 to $12.1 billion in 2029, with this growth primarily driven by the implementation of 10 Gbps XGS-PON in North America, EMEA, and CALA. However, China’s 50G-PON initiatives position it as a global leader. According to forecasts from Omdia, in 2024 and 2025, China will be the only commercial market for 50G-PON, accounting for 93 percent of the global market and generating approximately $1.55 billion in revenue by 2027.
PON, or passive optical network, is an optical technology that allows multiple users to share a single fiber connection through passive optical splitters. This approach minimizes the need for active electronic components between the provider and end users, thus reducing infrastructure costs, energy consumption, and improving network efficiency. The ITU-T standard for 50G-PON supports theoretical speeds of up to 50 Gbps downstream and 25 Gbps upstream; however, current implementations in China, led by China Telecom, regional subsidiary Shanghai Telecom, and ZTE, typically provide full optical access at 10 Gbps.
In addition to advancing with 50G-PON, China is expanding the term Fiber to the Room (FTTR), which provides fiber connectivity to individual rooms within homes and businesses. Unlike the traditional fiber to the home (FTTH) approach, which usually runs fiber to a central modem and then relies on Ethernet or Wi-Fi, FTTR connects fiber optic cables directly to each room, ensuring faster speeds, lower latency, and more stable connections.
The Dell’Oro report also indicates that revenue from distributed cable access equipment will peak at $1.3 billion in 2028, while fixed wireless broadband CPE is expected to reach its peak in 2025 and 2026, driven by sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave 5G units. Additionally, it is projected that residential Wi-Fi 7 routers and broadband CPE with WLAN will generate $8.9 billion by 2029 as their adoption grows among consumers and service providers.
According to Jeff Heynen, Vice President of Dell'Oro Group, "broadband access networks are quietly evolving into large-scale edge computing platforms, enabling the convergence of services faster and more easily than ever before." This evolution indicates a shift in the revenue mix for broadband equipment over the next five years, where spending on traditional hardware and software will be complemented by investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning tools that facilitate convergence and service reliability.
