Verizon's been busily conducting GPON connectivity in the field, showcasing how future upgrades could theoretically allow them to offer 10 Gbps to each home, or symmetrical 1 Gbps service to each PC in said home. But Verizon's current framework is no slouch either, the company today announcing they just completed a trial that involved almost 1 Gbps service on their existing GPON network.

The trial involved connecting Verizon's Taunton, Massachusetts call-switching office to an ONT located at a business customer's location. The speed was tested to a local speed test server over an optimized route, as well as across the public Internet to a regional speed test server located more than 400 miles away.

GPON is theoretically capable of offering 2.4 Gbps downstream and 1.2 Gbps upstream. In the real world (or at least something close to it), the connection tested out at 925 Mbps to a local server and 800 Mbps to a regional speed test server.

"The successful trial demonstrates that we have the headroom to meet current and future demands on the FiOS network from both residential and business customers," Verizon spokesman Cliff Lee tells Broadband Reports. The test "validates our decision to support both residential and business services on the same platform," said Vincent O'Byrne, director of Verizon's technology organization, who managed the trial.

Last week AT&T proclaimed Verizon's decision to halt FiOS expansion (to ramp up penetration and see if they could score some taxpayer/USF funds to continue deployment) justified AT&T's decision to spend less on AT&T U-Verse, though Verizon remains in a better competitive position. While you won't see 1 Gbps FiOS anytime soon, it seems likely Verizon will offer a new 100 Mbps (uncapped) tier sometime in the next year.