Ultra-Fast Broadband and Huawei Starlight F50 Optical Modem

In our country, broadband has been continuously advancing towards 1000Mbps, and having a gigabit bandwidth is no longer rare. However, for many users who pursue the ultimate network experience, 1000Mbps broadband may still seem slow. Super-high-speed broadband of over 2000Mbps has already emerged in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Of course, to support such a powerful broadband connection, an excellent performance optical modem is indispensable. During the MWC 2024, Huawei unveiled the Starlight F50 optical modem, which can support up to 3000Mbps of bandwidth, and with the help of WiFi 7, it can further reduce latency.

For consumers, traditional optical modems may only be seen as network transmission devices. In fact, modern optical modems can serve as entertainment terminals or storage centers within households. For example, the Huawei Starlight F50 optical modem has incorporated an SSD on top of the F30 model, turning the modem into a full-optical home storage center. With the rapid storage speed of the SSD, it can act as a home cloud drive for data backup, supporting storage of up to 8TB. Leveraging WiFi 7 and C-WAN architecture, it can support a maximum of 3000Mbps of bandwidth. The Huawei Starlight F50 modem is equipped with a 2.5G port and three gigabit ports. According to tests conducted by China Unicom, a 2000Mbps bandwidth can achieve transmission speeds exceeding 2300Mbps, which greatly depends on the redundancy of the operator’s bandwidth.

Regarding WiFi 7, apart from having higher transmission bandwidth, lower latency is crucial for gamers. Especially in some online games, low latency allows players to have a smoother gameplay experience. China Unicom also demonstrated latency performance under WiFi 7 and traditional WiFi 6. In a test of “Honor of Kings,” the latency under WiFi 7 was 10ms, while under WiFi 6, it was 38ms, showing a significant difference between the two.

Nowadays, optical modems can be similar to traditional NAS devices, serving as storage centers for home entertainment. With the prevalence of high bandwidth, more and more consumers will opt for multifunctional optical modems. However, most optical modems are designed in collaboration with communication companies. For individual consumers, the installation and configuration of optical modems are not easy tasks. Optical modems like the Huawei F50 are likely to enter ordinary households along with 2000Mbps broadband connections.