Never shown in the Netherlands: More than 8 Gbps down and up in Amersfoort's Vathorst district offers a glimpse into the future

Last Friday, KPN gave a successful demonstration of the super-high speeds its fiber optic network will be able to handle in the future. In the Amersfoort neighborhood of Vathorst, a home with a fiber connection achieved a speed of over 8 Gbps with peaks of up to 8.5 Gbps. It is the first time in the Netherlands that such high download and upload speeds on the basis of PON technology have been achieved in a normal residential area.

Babak Fouladi, Chief Digital & Technology Officer and member of the KPN Board of Management: “This demonstration shows what our investment in technology will bring our customers in the future. I’m extremely proud of our colleagues for having accomplished this and it's fantastic that this is already possible over our current network. We will continue to develop this in the coming period, so that we can achieve much higher speeds that will further shape the digitization of the Netherlands and from which our customers will eventually reap the benefits.”

To carry out this demo, KPN placed an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) in the meter box that can handle speeds up to 10 Gbps. In the underlying street junction boxes, equipment has been placed that can handle the same speed, a so-called OLT (Optical Line Terminal), and a faster connection to the core network and the internet domain has also been made. The energy-saving fiber optic technology behind this, known as PON technology, requires less amplification, can handle almost unlimited speeds, and makes the rollout of fiber optic easier since fewer street junction boxes are needed in the neighborhood.

KPN is continuously investing in faster internet and already offers speeds of up to 1Gbps at many addresses. To this end, KPN has in recent years equipped the network throughout the Netherlands with fiber optic up to the street junction box. It is currently installing fiber optic from the street junction box to customers’ doors at an accelerated pace. By the end of 2021, one million new addresses will have a fiber optic connection. KPN is currently rolling out fiber optic in more than 70 areas in the Netherlands.

A video has been made of this demonstration. You can watch it below.