The demonstrations illustrated a range of potential applications for the advanced fiber technology, from 8K/16K video streaming, cloud gaming and Wi‑Fi 7 or 8 networks, to remote TV/video production, high‑speed interconnection between company servers and the cloud, and critical industrial use cases.
50G PON is the successor to XGS‑PON (10 Gbps) and can support speeds up to 50 Gbps. Key advantages highlighted by Orange Romania include:
Ultra-fast connections – download speeds up to five times higher than the previous generation, enabling multigigabit services, 8K/16K streaming, cloud gaming and next‑generation Wi‑Fi;
Backward compatibility and coexistence – the technology can operate on the same fiber and within the same optical distribution network alongside GPON (1–2.5 Gbps) and XGS‑PON (10 Gbps) without affecting existing customers;
Low latency and precise synchronization – designed for extremely low latency and better jitter management, suitable for critical industrial applications;
Improved mobile networks – provides the bandwidth and low latency needed to interconnect 5G radio stations;
Converged services – enables service providers to carry residential, SMB, large enterprise and mobile traffic over a single physical network, lowering operating and maintenance costs;
More energy‑efficient networks – by moving larger volumes of data per active network component, 50G PON reduces energy consumption per bit compared to deploying multiple previous‑generation lines.
A notable benefit for Orange Romania customers is that 50G PON can run on the same fiber as GPON and XGS‑PON, each on a different wavelength. This allows network expansion without laying new fiber: customers can be migrated to 50G PON while neighbors remain on GPON or XGS‑PON with no degradation in service. The equipment tested supports all three generations on the same port and can serve up to 128 customers on a single fiber.
Orange’s trial achieved roughly 40 Gbps — the practical maximum for the tested setup — for both directions, with latency below one millisecond. The tests took place at the Orange 5G Lab within the CAMPUS Research Center of the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, with Orange technical experts and researchers from the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology.
Orange Romania is ranked the fastest mobile and fiber network in Romania for the 9th consecutive year, according to the latest Netograf report published by ANCOM. The operator currently offers the fastest residential connections up to 2.1 Gbps through the Fibre 2300 service and business connections up to 10 Gbps via the Dedicated Internet Access service. Orange presents 50G PON as a natural network evolution to support next‑generation connectivity.
According to Orange, the most important aspect of 50G PON is not just raw speed but the new opportunities it enables for residential and business customers: virtual reality, remote TV production, cloud gaming, enhanced support for SaaS, cloud computing and data‑intensive applications such as artificial intelligence. As an example, collaborators could transfer and synchronize video production files far faster; replicating backups between customer servers and Orange data centers would be accelerated. At 40 Gbps, a 1 TB file could be transmitted in 5 minutes versus one hour at 2 Gbps. The technology also supports high‑speed connectivity for large university campuses, improving links between faculties, labs and dormitories.
“The first test of 50G PON technology in Romania represents an important new step in increasing digitalization in our country and is just one of the many innovations made by Orange this year to improve services. We aim to constantly deliver new technological firsts in order to prepare future networks. At first glance it may seem to be just a speed upgrade, but it is a technology that will make an important leap in what is already shaping up to be the next industrial revolution, driven by Artificial Intelligence and our continuously evolving digital lives. We will continue to test the capabilities of 50G PON, which will transform the company's fiber‑optic networks for both home customers and businesses," said Marius Maican, Technology Director at Orange Romania.
Alongside speed measurements, the Orange 5G Lab simulated several usage scenarios for 50G PON: remote video editing with cloud‑hosted files; using server storage as a local disk; large file transfers; and downloading AI models from the cloud to run on local servers.
Orange Romania is part of the Orange Group, a major global telecommunications operator serving hundreds of millions of customers. With over 11 million local customers and annual turnover exceeding 1.5 billion euros, Orange Romania connects one in two Romanians and provides a wide portfolio of services for individuals and businesses — from basic connectivity to comprehensive mobile, fixed internet and TV packages, as well as complex IT&C solutions through Orange Business. Since entering the local market, Orange has invested 4.7 billion euros in Romania.
