Kontron and Planet Networks to bring 10-Gigabit fibre to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the US

Kontron has announced a strategic partnership with Planet Networks to accelerate the deployment of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. This collaboration will bring multi-gigabit connectivity with speeds up to 10 Gbps to residential and business customers.

As part of this partnership, Planet Networks is implementing an end-to-end fibre-broadband solution powered by Kontron’s advanced hardware and software portfolio. This includes Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), XGS-PON Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and next-generation Mesh Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 Customer-Premises Equipment (CPE) – all seamlessly integrated ensuring ease of transition with existing platforms and paired with an intuitive software management platform to streamline deployment and operations.

Robert Boyle, CEO of Planet Networks, emphasised the value of working with Kontron: “From concept to deployment, Kontron has been a reliable and innovative partner. Their open broadband hardware and software platform enables us to integrate with and upgrade our existing legacy network OLT equipment while preserving the value of existing ONTs already deployed, delivering significantly faster speeds and superior service quality to our customers. The integration of Kontron’s industry-leading standards-based OLTs and the new XGS-PON ONTs developed for us by Kontron future-proofs our network, allows us to deliver a robust suite of services, and improves installation simplicity.”

Planet Networks has connected subscribers on Kontron’s platform already and plans to connect over 30,000 subscribers within the next year and more than 100,000 over the next several years. Planet Networks offers its fibre-internet service to over 100,000 homes today with plans to more than triple that number over the next several years. This rapid expansion is made possible, in part, by Kontron’s ability to meet Planet Networks’ specific needs for high-reliability best-in-class solutions and services with industry-leading value. With XGS-PON, Planet Networks has the capability to offer ultra-fast broadband speeds up to 10 Gbps, ensuring ample network bandwidth to meet Planet Networks’ customers’ needs for years to come.

Ted Christiansen, CEO of Kontron America, highlighted the partnership’s significance: “Kontron’s long-standing leadership in the European broadband market is now extending into the US through partnerships like this. By working with Planet Networks, we are setting new standards for speed, reliability, and customer experience in fibre-broadband services.”

Kontron’s commitment to interoperability ensures seamless integration with legacy equipment, providing a true open platform that allows Internet providers like Planet Networks to mix and match OLTs, ONTs and CPE from different vendors. This flexibility allowed Planet Networks to easily connect their existing ONTs from multiple vendors to Kontron’s new Iskratel Lumia OLTs and upgrade from 1 Gbit/s GPON to 10 Gbit/s XGS-PON while supporting both existing GPON and new XGS-PON (Combo PON) technologies. As a result, Planet Networks was able to leverage their existing investments in already deployed networking equipment without requiring expensive truck rolls or interruptions to customers while improving overall network performance and scalability.

As part of the partnership with Planet Networks, Kontron demonstrated its agility and focus on customer-driven product development by utilising existing field-proven design for 10 Gbps XGS-PON Iskratel Innbox ONTs while adding specific features requested by Planet Networks, such as Power over Ethernet (PoE), ruggedised housing and high-temperature operation, delivering a prototype in just six weeks.

Furthermore, Kontron’s advanced hardware and traffic-management algorithms on its OLTs enabled Planet Networks to achieve a 50% increase in customer Wi-Fi performance without replacing already deployed ONTs and CPE, enhancing connectivity and delivering a better customer experience.

This partnership marks the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between Kontron and Planet Networks, with both companies committed to expanding fibre-broadband availability and ensuring that homes and businesses across the region benefit from next-generation connectivity.