RFOG as a Bridge to Other PONs

A recent report by Point Topic notes that at the end of 2021, Virgin Media O2 had gigabit per second capability across its entire 15.5 million home footprint.

Openreach passed 5.8 million fiber-to-home locations while three million U.K. premises were passed by independent fiber networks.

Virgin Media premises passed by Gig1 and RFOG broadband technologies

	Premises passed, Dec 2021	Premises passed, Sep 2021	Premises added, Sep – Dec 2021
Docsis 3.1	15,484,086	11,554,960	3,929,126
RFOG	1,002,857	979,457	23,400

source: Point Topic

One point of interest is the access platform Virgin O2 uses for about a million of its passings. Called “radio frequency over glass,” RFOG is useful for compatibility with hybrid fiber coax networks, especially when a node split has to be implemented. 

So RFOG is a passive optical network and is a way to implement DOCSIS services over a FTTH network. 

Although in principle RFOG--as a PON--might be a protocol a cable operator could run longer term, it does not appear that Virgin Media O2 will do so when it converts its HFC and RFOG networks to function as a wholesale network, in addition to supporting its own needs. 

The value of RFOG is its backwards compatibility with HFC. That will not have value for new wholesale customers likely to be most interested in using the wholesale network to support internet access operations. 

And few of those potential customers are likely to have a need for backwards compatibility with HFC or the DOCSIS protocols.