Why GPOn?

@Dark_Nate Why do companies use GPON for FTTH?

Why not just provide CAT6 to your home so you can just use your router without a modem? ACT does this for their 300 Mbps plan. But why not for Gig? CAT6 can reliably transfer 10Gig over like 50m and 1Gig over like 300m or so. Isn’t that good enough?

Bandwidth is not the only thing in networking.


Read all these to understand better:

There's also GEPON, but it's capped at 100 Mbps on user side.

In terms of ping and jitter, my ACT 150 (CAT6) was actually better than my Airtel GPON. What’s there to networking apart from speed, jitter and ping?

With CAT8 you can get 0-1ms ping, near 0 jitter, up to 40 Gbps speed. I don’t see this getting outdated for the next 20+ years anywhere in the world in the consumer space.

In fact, with CAT6 you can have all of the above but with 5-10 Gbps speed instead. Which too likely will last 10-15 years for high end users.

I don’t see 1+ Gig plans being necessary for Indian homes for 5+ years.

So why not keep it simple?

@aakshey if it was better, there are thousands of variables that are the cause.

You should start with networking basics. Buy a book to learn more. This a forum, not a tuition place.

Edit: There are many misconceptions in networking for the layman and even some "professionals".

Network speed = Latency (lower is better)
Network Capacity = Bandwith (higher is better)
Network Lag = Bufferbloat aka Jitter = Idle latency + Loaded latency (lower is better)

But there are companies globally who are using Fibre through Routers and not through GPON. I asked the Airtel guy. He said fiber modems and fiber wiring is cheaper, more futureproof, and doesn’t need to be changed like CAT6 wiring.

The Airtel guy is an idiot. First of all, there's no modulation/demodulation in Fibre Optics. So there's no such thing as "Fibre Modem". There's the only conversion from an optical signal to an electrical signal and vice versa in FTTH topology.

Fibre Optics is light. CAT6 is electrons. Do the math.

I meant the ONT is cheaper. Routers are more expensive. Same with cabling.

@aakshey You seemed to be very interested in networking. I suggest you look up online tutorials and books.

Forget about GPON and Fibre Optics.
Start with the basics. I'm an IT graduate intending to specialise in networking in the future. I too start with basics.

@Dark_Nate 🙂

@Dark_Nate What is the max capacity of the SMF Airtel is using?

Do Jio/ACT/Spectra use Single Mode too? If one changes ISP, is rewiring necessary?

GPON is last mile deployment technology.
Act and airtel both use GPON to deliver last mile to the customers. Airtel terminates fiber directly to the home but act uses a switch and gives a CAT5E or CAt6 cable to your home.
Some reasons why fiber directly to home is preferred
1. Fiber cable is cheap 10-12 bucks/meter.
2. It's lot more durable and stronger than the Ethernet cables.
3. Ethernet cables cost atleast 15 bucks per meter and good ones are about 20-25 rupees per meter.
4. Fiber is future proof, we can provision even multi gigabit connections to home by just changing the olt and ont but for act like deployment you need to make lot more changes.
5. Fiber is not prone to problems like water flowing inside the Ethernet cables, electrical interference etc.
single mode fiber theoretically can handle upto 100 gigabit if used only for either tx or rx but when tdma is used for uplink then that'll change. To answer your question depends on the equipment.
GPON link has shared downstream bandwidth of 2.5 Gbits and upstream is 1.44 gbits which is shared between the customers.

Do you think in 30 years Airtel will give me 100gig over the same wiring they've setup for me right now?

Money aside, because inr 10 to inr 25 per m isn't a lot since it is one time.

Underground fiber cabling has avg lifespan of 25 years.
Advantage of fiber is just by replacing the multiplexing technology at both sides we can increase the bandwidth of the cable system multiple times.

But even CAT8 can do 40gig. Do you really think we will need more than 40gig in the next 25 years?

@vignesh_venkatesan :Why ACT preferred switches/CAT than other ISPS like Airtel/BSNL on GPON?