The Kuwaiti government carried out a lab trial of Nokia’s XGS-PON fiber-to-the-home technology

The Government of Kuwait reportedly completed a successful lab tests of Nokia’s XGS-PON fiber-to-the-home technology, achieving upstream speeds of 10 gigabits per second over a single fiber.

Nokia said this was the first time such a speed had been achieved in the Gulf Corporation Council region. The vendor added the lab test paves the way for the Kuwaiti government to offer enhanced speeds from the current 1 Gbps to symmetrical 10 Gbps.

Nokia’s XGS-PON technology, which was recently standardized, is designed to allow service providers to grow revenues by offering high-speed services to residential and enterprise customers over their existing network infrastructure.

“Our unique approach will enable the government to protect its investment by allowing it to upgrade from GPON to XGS-PON and to TWDM-PON by utilizing the same access node,” said Federico Guillén, president of Nokia’s Fixed Networks Business Group.

Nokia provided two solutions for the lab test including its 7360 Intelligent Services Access Manager FX, which it describes as a high-capacity access node designed to allow operators to meet bandwidth needs of demanding residential and business users, and Nokia’s 7368 Intelligent Service Access Manager Optical Network Terminals.

The Kuwait Government was the first to roll out GPON in the GCC region in 2006.

Zain looks at fiber-to-the-home deployment in Saudi Arabia after license upgrade

Saudi Arabian mobile operator Zain is looking to deploy a fiber-to-the-home network in the Middle East country after obtaining an upgraded telecoms license, international press reported.

The previous license only allowed Zain to offer mobile telephony services. With the so called unified telecommunications license, Zain will also be able to launch fixed telephony service.

Zain had recently announced an agreement with Saudi Electricity Co. that could allow the telco to use the power firm’s existing infrastructure.