GPON and XGS-PON: What’s Behind Your Fiber Connection?

Two abbreviations, one principle: how your fiber connection works technically and whether 10 Gbit/s is worth it on Mallorca.

In short: GPON is the technology behind almost all fiber connections in Spain and on Mallorca: 2.5 Gbit/s download and 1.25 Gbit/s upload, shared by up to 64 households. XGS-PON is the successor with 10 Gbit/s in both directions. Both run over the same fibers. On Mallorca, GPON is in use almost everywhere today. XGS-PON already exists in Spain, but only in spots on the island, and it has to be checked for each address individually.

---

1. What “PON” means

PON stands for Passive Optical Network. “Passive” means: there is not a single powered device between the central office and your house. One fiber from the central office is split along the way by splitters (small glass components) among many houses.

The building blocks:

• OLT (Optical Line Terminal): the active device in the town’s central office, for example in Llucmajor or Manacor.
• Splitter: splits the light passively, usually in two stages (1:4 in town, 1:16 in the box on the pole).
• ONT (Optical Network Terminal): the device at your home, usually built into the router.

In download, all houses on the same splitter receive the same light signal. The data is encrypted, and each ONT only decrypts its own part. In upload, the ONTs transmit in turn in fixed time slots assigned by the OLT. How the network on Mallorca is built in detail is explained in How does Movistar’s fiber network on Mallorca work?

2. GPON and XGS-PON compared

	GPON	XGS-PON
Standard	ITU-T G.984	ITU-T G.9807.1
Download (shared)	2.5 Gbit/s	10 Gbit/s
Upload (shared)	1.25 Gbit/s	10 Gbit/s
Wavelength download / upload	1490 / 1310 nm	1577 / 1270 nm
Typical plans	up to 1 Gbit/s	2, 5 or 10 Gbit/s
Households per OLT port	up to 64	up to 64 (often fewer)
Range	approx. 20 km	approx. 20 km

The “X” is the Roman numeral for 10, the “S” stands for symmetric. There’s also XG-PON (10 Gbit/s download, only 2.5 Gbit/s upload). That was hardly deployed, though, and plays no role in Spain.

3. The trick: both on the same fiber

GPON and XGS-PON use different wavelengths, i.e., different “light colors”. That’s why they can run on the same fiber at the same time without interfering:

For you this means: to switch to XGS-PON, nobody has to lay new cables or tear up the street. The provider retrofits an XGS-PON card in the central office, and you get a new router or ONT. Neighbors on a GPON plan won’t notice anything.

4. Who uses what in Spain?

• Movistar (Telefónica): The network that reaches the most houses on Mallorca runs on GPON with plans up to 1 Gbit/s. Movistar has been gradually introducing 10 Gbit/s plans via XGS-PON since 2026, first in larger cities.
• Digi: has offered up to 10 Gbit/s over XGS-PON since 2021, but only on its own fiber network (“Fibra SMART”). Where Digi uses the Movistar network, the limits of GPON apply.
• Orange / MasOrange and Vodafone: have 10 Gbit/s products, but only in built-out areas or for business customers.
• O2, Finetwork, Lowi & Co.: mostly use third-party networks and therefore usually GPON.

Important: a plan with “up to 10 Gbit/s” on the website doesn’t mean it’s available at your address.

5. And on Mallorca?

Our status from practice:

• The vast majority of connections on Mallorca are GPON, especially in the Movistar network and with all providers that use it. This applies in particular to the villages and outlying areas.
• XGS-PON only exists in spots, in individual build-out areas of providers with their own network. Island-wide availability is not documented.
• Regional providers like IBRED or Connecta Balear operate their own networks with their own technology. Here it’s worth asking directly. You’ll find an overview in our fiber provider comparison for Spain.

Check availability: Whether fiber is available at your address and which providers offer it there, you can check with our coverage check. It uses the official data of the Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation. Whether it’s GPON or XGS-PON, however, no public source reveals, not even the ministry’s map. Only the address lookup at the provider shows that: if a plan above 1 Gbit/s can be booked there, XGS-PON is available. If you already have a connection, the technology is usually printed on the label of the ONT or router (“GPON” or “XGS-PON”/“10G-PON”).

6. Do I even need XGS-PON?

Honestly: in most houses, no. A GPON connection with 600 Mbit/s or 1 Gbit/s is more than enough for 4K streaming on several TVs, video conferences and working from home. In practice, almost always something else is the bottleneck:

• The WiFi: Thick natural stone walls in fincas swallow more bandwidth than any fiber technology.
• The provider’s router: often only 1 Gbit/s ports and weak WiFi.
• The end devices: Most laptops and TVs can’t do 10 Gbit/s at all.

XGS-PON is worth it when a lot is uploaded or many users are online at the same time: offices, holiday complexes with several apartments, video surveillance with cloud storage, large backups. But then the network inside the house also has to keep up, with a 10 Gbit switch, suitable cabling and a router that can route 10 Gbit/s.

---

Frequently asked questions

Is XGS-PON faster in ping than GPON? Barely noticeable. Both are in the range of a few milliseconds for ping. The difference is made by bandwidth, not response time.

Can I use my own router with XGS-PON? Yes, if it has an XGS-PON module or a 10 Gbit port for the provider’s ONT. With a UniFi Cloud Gateway, the ONT is usually connected upstream via SFP+ or 10 Gbit Ethernet.

Will my GPON connection be switched off at some point? Not in the foreseeable future. Both systems run in parallel on the same fiber. GPON will be operated for many more years.

And if there’s no fiber at all? Then Starlink is often the best alternative on Mallorca. More in Starlink on Mallorca.

---

What JumpIT does for you

We check which technology is available at your address and make sure the bandwidth also reaches the whole house: your own router instead of the provider’s box, professional WiFi (UniFi) through thick walls, fiber to outbuildings. With XGS-PON, we plan the network in the house end to end for 10 Gbit/s.

Fiber from the pros: Router, splicing and WiFi on your property: Fiber on Mallorca

See also: Fiber Types: OM1 to OM5, OS1/OS2, G.652.D and G.657

Contact: jumpit.eu · JumpIT Netzwerk Service, Llucmajor