Verizon FiOS Test Nears 1 Gigabit per Second

16.08.2010
Now that's fast. has completely a field trial on its fiber-optic network, in which it delivered bandwidth approaching 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) to business customer in Taunton, Massachusetts.

The demonstration, conducted in June via Verizon's gigabit passive optical network (GPON), was designed to show that today's FiOS equipment can support higher bandwidth--including 1Gbps throughput--without major changes to the network, the company said. The GPON platform, developed by Motorola, supports bandwidth of 2.4Gbps downstream and 1.2Gbps upstream to customers connected to the passive optical network.

Verizon's point here is that FiOS is more than capable of delivering throughput that far exceeds current maximum speeds. For consumers, today's FiOS Internet tops out at 50Mbps downstream.

"This kind of bandwidth capacity will provide Verizon the ability to continue to meet FiOS customers' needs by offering more bandwidth to support services such as 3DTV, ultra HDTV, multiplayer gaming and HD video conferencing," said Brian Whitton, executive director of Verizon's technology group, in a statement.

The actual throughput speeds in the field trial were 925 megabits per second (Mbps) to a local server, and more than 800Mbps to Verizon's regional test speed servers. The existing FiOS service was left in place, and the trial didn't degrade the customer's voice, data, or video services, the company claims.

Verizon has big plans for its FiOS brand. It's reportedly to develop a tablet device that would allow customers to watch FiOS digital TV.