A system and method of extending a trunk reach of a passive optical network, PON. An optical network termination, ONT, processes upstream and downstream PON signals on a trunk fiber with an optical line termination, OLT, at a central office. An extender device may be implemented at a user's home, a remote node, or at the central office. The extender device includes a time division multiplexing, TDM, unit for multiplexing the PON signals, a forward error correction, FEC1 unit for applying an FEC to the PON signals, and a regenerator for applying optical-electrical-optical, OEO, regeneration to the PON signals.