FRITZ!Box 5590 Fiber Review – The Power of Fiber is Here – Review

As we have learned from other AVM models, the 5590 translates as follows: 55 because it is for fiber technology and 90 because it is the best and most powerful model in the series.

The FRITZ!Box 5590 Fiber comes to replace the FRITZ!Box 5491 which was its predecessor for GPON as well as the FRITZ!Box 5490 which was for AON. Today we'll take a detailed look at the FRITZ!Box 5590 Fiber. This new and interesting proposal from AVM will be added to the range of products that can provide us with the Internet through the power of optical fiber.

For many, FTTH (ONT) modem routers are something unknown. For others, this is the reality they live every day after FTTH arrives in their area, while for others it is a “dream” as they wait for FTTH to become available.

Before proceeding with the review, we should mention some technical details about FTTH technology and in our case GPON as well as FRITZ!5590 Fiber. This introduction is necessary to solve the questions that will be asked.

Let's Begin:

In Greece, the FTTH technology offered by service providers is PON (Passive Optical Network) and there is also AON (Active Optical Network). PON specifically is GPON i.e. Gigabit Passive Optical Network. Now what is GPON and how does it work? In very simple words, on the provider side, there is the OLT (Optical Line Terminal) which is the “device” through which the optical fibers that carry the Internet to our home are connected and the ONT (Optical Network Terminal). Between the OLT and ONT are passive optical splitters. What they do: Passive optical splitters accept a single optical fiber as the input and output multiple fibers as the output. So from OLT we can have, for example, 10 fibers which will not go to 10 homes, but each of them can go to a passive optical splitter that divides it into 32 fibers. So in one fiber instead of one subscriber there can be 32 subscribers.

Now let's move on to what actually interests us as end users. Since a single optical fiber serves 32 subscribers, there must be some way to distinguish which subscriber is which. So each ONT has a unique identifier that is usually listed on the ONT itself. In the case of the FRITZ!Box 5590, the ID is in the format AVMG xxxx xxxx. In order for an ONT to be identified and “synchronized” over fiber, the provider must advertise it to the OLT. If he doesn't announce it the connection will never happen. Due to the current legislation in Greece that states that a provider must support any modem router, we thought we could buy an FTTH modem router usually an ONT and give our service provider the ID and be ready to surf. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In case of FTTH, the provider will not accept passing the ONT ID to make the connection. It gives us its ONT which simply converts optical fiber to Ethernet and then gives us the option to install any router we want as long as it has a WAN port.

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