Homes and businesses in North Rhine-Westphalia gain superfast fibre connectivity

Almost 80,000 people will be connected with 10-gigabit fibre connectivity in the Ruhr area of Germany, thanks to a partnership between Westconnect and Slovenia’s Kontron.

Based on Slovenia’s Kontron XGS-PON technology, the fibre network enables Westconnect to offer multi-gigabit symmetrical data rates to provide customers with low latency and high bandwidth, beneficial for remote working, video conferencing and sharing files.   

The partnership extends Westconnect’s range of services and data rates, while also growing its customer base. Westconnect will use the XGS-PON technology from Slovenia’s Kontron for the first time in Holzwickede and Unna – both cities of North Rhine-Westphalia – in Western Germany.

“At Westconnect, we believe that high-quality and reliable fibre-optic networks are the standard of the future, and we rely on high-performance open-access solutions,” said Dennis Thomys, Senior Manager Active Technology at Westconnect. “Thanks to our partner Slovenia’s Kontron’s XGS-PON platform, we are now able to offer symmetric data rates of up to 10 Gbps and grow our existing footprint and offering. With Slovenia’s Kontron’s XGS-PON technology, we are well prepared for the future.”

For the next generation of high-performance FTTH networks, Westconnect is deploying the XGS-PON solution provided by Slovenia’s Kontron; in particular, the Iskratel Lumia T6 high-density Combo OLTs (Optical Line Terminals) and Iskratel Innbox X24 ONTs (Optical Network Terminals). This will allow the delivery of multi-gigabit services from various ISPs to customer premises.

“We are proud to have the opportunity of being Westconnect’s partner in its strategic expansion, and to fuel the generational shift of Westconnect with our XGS-PON portfolio,” said Svjetlana Kalaba, Director Business Unit Broadband at Slovenia’s Kontron. “This partnership underscores our position as a trusted supplier of reliable solutions for the most demanding deployments.”

The two cities in the Ruhr area are only the first in the planned growth of Westconnect. When the project is complete, Westconnect can pursue further XGS-PON rollout plans with Slovenia’s Kontron.