Network X 2025, held in Paris, hosted over 5,500 broadband professionals for three days of insightful discussions. Nokia showcased its wide range of broadband solutions across FTTX and FWA for both enterprise and residential uses. Nokia’s highlight announcement at the show was its 50G PON solution, enabling operators to seamlessly upgrade from 10G or 25G PON and better serve enterprise customers on their FTTH networks.

At the event, Taimur Zafar, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, had the opportunity to speak with Stefan Vanhastel, VP of Marketing and Innovation, Fixed Networks at Nokia, to learn more about key use cases, operator strategies and advantages of Nokia’s 50G PON solution.

The Interview


Key Takeaways from the Discussion:

• Vanhastel deep dives into Nokia’s new 50G PON solution (alongside 10G, 25G and future 100G) and a digital twin for its AI access platform, giving operators better visibility and troubleshooting for both active and passive fiber networks.

• He explains that Nokia’s strategy is flexible evolution rather than forced upgrades, letting operators run GPON, XGS-PON, 25G and 50G on the same fiber network and selectively upgrade areas like campuses or business parks.

• The conversation contrasts the 25G with the 50G PON: 25G is a more cost-efficient way to deliver multi-gig residential and SME services, while 50G is initially aimed at high-demand enterprise and campus use cases, with costs expected to fall over time.

• Vanhastel stresses that ‘fiber to the home’ is really fiber past every building, enabling operators to serve homes, small businesses, hospitals and schools from one network, while evolving Wi-Fi (7 and beyond) carries those higher access speeds to end devices.

Analyst Take

• 50G PON promises next-generation multi-gigabit connectivity, but initial deployments will be enterprise-focused with more limited residential use cases.

• 50G PON will enable ISPs to go beyond residential customers and expand their footprints with enterprise, industrial and campus customers.

• Wi-Fi 7 and 8 will be required to carry higher access speeds to end devices, as network quality will be measured by the end device experience.